Druchii Warband Proposed Fluff.

Mielkith · Post by **Mielkith** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:43 pm

1:Malekith was displeased with the Highborn for loosing one of the fleets flag ships on the rocks. Rather then re-assiging the now grounded corairs to other ships they were to share the Highborns punishment and were sent underground with him.

2: On the crossing to the Empire a few of the warband members got rather drunk and began telling tales of the grand wealth to be had in Mordheim. The Corsairs crewing the ships heard these storys and, for love of plunder, many followed the warbands across the Empire and into the Mordheim.

Hows that?

Anaryin · Post by **Anaryin** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:48 pm

I'd go with a two options:

Yours of Corsairs hearing tales of a rich city.

Mine of Highborns and Corsairs (fleets) having heard and also went there to explore.

Ranieth · Post by **Ranieth** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:31 pm

Or maybe the disgraced highborn just happened to had been a corsair captain and brought his pirate 'mates'.
Nice draft. Seems good.

Pagan-gerbil · Post by **Pagan-gerbil** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:36 pm

I don't really think there should be too many reasons to be there... Every other band only has one, so if Druchii are going through (as mentioned before) tunnels and tunnels of Skaven, and over land from Morathi, and disrupting affairs and collecting wyrdstone... it gets confusing.
I like simple

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:50 pm

Yours of Corsairs hearing tales of a rich city.

Well as I pointed out it's the druchii slavers that hear about the city first. Guess who the slavers are in druchii society? Apart from that the corsairs transporting the Wyrdstone back would also hear about it (again mentioned in my write-up). I suppose since corsairs are so used to close in and restricted fighting the Highborn decided to take some with him into the underway. Apart from that, isn't a lot pf the underway one huge sea? Maybe he needed them to sail him around. Or maybe he's a disgraced captain and thye were his crew? It's pretty open.

Btw, the main, non fluff reason for the underway thing is so that players with a fondness for drow have an extra incentive to use the warband without going into spider-wueen /poison hand crossbow territory.

Mime · Post by **Mime** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:49 am

Well looks like I'm one of only the minority who think it's all a bit improbable.

things that need looking at.

A year to 'find' an uncharatered path half way around the world, not likelly I wouldn't think. Took me 10 months to travel the length of Africa, and we had a Truck and had a fair idea where to go.

Travelling under ground to get there then shipping the Stone home by ship? Makes travelling all that way in the dark kind of redudent really.

Last it just seems a little, simple, for want of a better word.

Last why do we need to wait for the where abouts of Wyrdstone before we decide to do anything about finding out whats going on. By the time that sort of rumor got to us it'd be long gone.

I believe we need an excuse to have explorers that we sent there as soon as the comet is sighted, rather than after it levelled the city, wit hthe Wyrd stone being the asdded bonus for all the risk.

Mike

Orteo · Post by **Orteo** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 1:03 am

You have to realize that the other races didn't send warbands to Mordheim as soon as the comet hit. Why would they? It wasn't until someone discovered the wyrdstone's power and the rumor spread that warbands would start to trickle in.

The traveling underground was a punishment, like digging holes and filling them back in. Besides, they weren't meant to get to Mordheim, so I don't see that as a problem.

I agree that a year to get halfway across the world seems unrealistic. But that is easily fixed, since the date the highborn was exiled is rather arbitrary. It could take three years if we want, and have him emerge near Mordheim only a few months after the comet destroyed it.

it is unrealistic because the under-empire is full with skaven.. i don't think that no druchii, no matter how good they are can travel half the world through tunnels full with skaven.

Full is relative. While there are a lot of Skaven, the underworld is huge. They can't fill all of it, and they are probably very few under the ocean, which is where the Druchii party would have spent most of its time.

Mime · Post by **Mime** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 3:05 am

Orteo wrote:You have to realize that the other races didn't send warbands to Mordheim as soon as the comet hit. Why would they? It wasn't until someone discovered the wyrdstone's power and the rumor spread that warbands would start to trickle in.

The point is though that other races arnt anywhere near as far away as we are, in fact from the top of my head I believe they're all based 'in' the empire. Also the only other sanctioned raiders are undead and Skaven, both of which would have heard of the wyrdstone weeks after the comet struck.

For Druchii to get word, we'd maybe need to catch several slaves who try to barter the info for their freedom, fools, the rumors would need to be checked out and verfied. Then maybe parties would be sent, quite a good while to get that all achieved I would have thought.

The traveling underground was a punishment, like digging holes and filling them back in. Besides, they weren't meant to get to Mordheim, so I don't see that as a problem.

No getting theres not such a problem but arriveing after years in the underempire 'just at the right moment' is rather thin though don't you think?

I agree that a year to get halfway across the world seems unrealistic. But that is easily fixed, since the date the highborn was exiled is rather arbitrary. It could take three years if we want, and have him emerge near Mordheim only a few months after the comet destroyed it.

I would put it at around 10 - 15 years, look at long it took the Greek 10000 to fight their way back from Persia.

it is unrealistic because the under-empire is full with skaven.. i don't think that no druchii, no matter how good they are can travel half the world through tunnels full with skaven.

Full is relative. While there are a lot of Skaven, the underworld is huge. They can't fill all of it, and they are probably very few under the ocean, which is where the Druchii party would have spent most of its time.

But not the last few hundred miles. My impression of the under empire was that it is a series of underground highways connecting rat cities, as opposed to a vast underground wilderness.

Pagan-gerbil · Post by **Pagan-gerbil** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 10:54 am

The Under-Empire isn't full of Skaven all over, but under the Empire at least, it seems to be crawling with them. That last leg would be particularly tough going. (edit: oops, someone else mentioned that!)

I like the idea in the other thread by mime, about HE and DE both being there concerning a prophecy about Albion - antagonistic purposes, not simple Wyrdstone (though both want to harness/contain the stuff, for simple treasure-hunting rules) and not overly complicated.

Ansob. · Post by **Ansob.** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 5:00 pm

Arquinsiel wrote:Thank you, the multiple motivations was the thing I was trying to convey most in the stoyr. I wanted people to feel like it was their druchii warband that had come to mordheim, not just another part of Morathi's Cult of Pleasure or the house troops of a disgraced Highborn.

That's my main problem with this (if we put the credibility of certain bits aside). See, as the fluff goes, too much importance is given to the first two expeditions (Morathi/Underway), not enough to the subsequent ones of which the warband's supposed to be part (the "sporting" expeditions and reinforcements for the bastardising of Empire/HE relations). Reading the fluff, I feel like my warband has to be part of either Morathi's chosen group(s, damn you!

) or the disgraced noble's expeditionary forces... I just think that the importance of the first two should be greatly diminished and the importance of the last two greatly increased in the definitive version of the fluff. Concretely, it'd simply mean mentioning Morathi and the Underway very briefly, and being a lot lengthier about the sporting and spoiling of relations.
Just a feeling, though.

Pale warrior · Post by **Pale warrior** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:17 pm

Well, my take on something...
The plan/plot/fluff to bring Druchii into Mordheim -has- to be somewhat simple. The other races there are generally all continental armies. They all have easy access, not having to cross the sea and whatnot. Send some men in a wagon down there. But for Druchii to be there, there has to be a vague, simple reason, so that Druchii players can mould it to their own needs.
Human mercenaries are pretty simple creatures...they go for profit and repuation, and because they're paid. Dwarves, well, they dig riches. Skaven use the wyrdstone to power their war machines, right? The Possessed, well they are freaks created by the wyrdstone?
But Druchii, half-way across the world, can't just send a wagon, and a whole fleet of ships taking people to the city would be too obvious, people would notice that. But, scattered groups emerging from the Underway, seeing a chance to fund their cult and king...people can bend that around and use it many ways. Plus, it allows for more warbands, fluff-wise. Many scattered groups, not bands pouring off of a boat.

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:26 pm

A year to 'find' an uncharatered path half way around the world, not likelly I wouldn't think. Took me 10 months to travel the length of Africa, and we had a Truck and had a fair idea where to go.

Were you running for you life?

Travelling under ground to get there then shipping the Stone home by ship? Makes travelling all that way in the dark kind of redudent really.

As pointed out, that was a coincidence.

Last why do we need to wait for the where abouts of Wyrdstone before we decide to do anything about finding out whats going on. By the time that sort of rumor got to us it'd be long gone.

As pointed out before, the game occupies a 300 year window according to fluff already published.

The point is though that other races arnt anywhere near as far away as we are, in fact from the top of my head I believe they're all based 'in' the empire. Also the only other sanctioned raiders are undead and Skaven, both of which would have heard of the wyrdstone weeks after the comet struck.

Clan eshin are based in Cathy.

For Druchii to get word, we'd maybe need to catch several slaves who try to barter the info for their freedom, fools, the rumors would need to be checked out and verfied. Then maybe parties would be sent, quite a good while to get that all achieved I would have thought.

is it just me or did I already put that in there? Hmmm.... begining to think you just skimmed this.

No getting theres not such a problem but arriveing after years in the underempire 'just at the right moment' is rather thin though don't you think?

Not just the right moment. Now I KNOW you just skimmed this.

My impression of the under empire was that it is a series of underground highways connecting rat cities, as opposed to a vast underground wilderness.

Well huge amounts of it are derilect dwarven highways so yeah, you could call it a wilderness almost.

The Under-Empire isn't full of Skaven all over, but under the Empire at least, it seems to be crawling with them. That last leg would be particularly tough going. (edit: oops, someone else mentioned that!)

That would be why the expedition was pretty much shattered and generall chased all over the place.

I like the idea in the other thread by mime, about HE and DE both being there concerning a prophecy about Albion - antagonistic purposes, not simple Wyrdstone (though both want to harness/contain the stuff, for simple treasure-hunting rules) and not overly complicated.

Warhammer has too many prophecies these days. Also, notice the line about "certain powers known only to (Morathi)."

I just think that the importance of the first two should be greatly diminished and the importance of the last two greatly increased in the definitive version of the fluff. Concretely, it'd simply mean mentioning Morathi and the Underway very briefly, and being a lot lengthier about the sporting and spoiling of relations.

And thereby glossing over how we know about it in the first place.

Nekroskop · Post by **Nekroskop** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:47 pm

Sorry, just too complicated. Morathi doesn't ahve to be overly secretive and send only a chosen few 500 years ago. She is the Head of the Temple of Khaine, the Head of the Sorceresses and the Kings Mother.

Also, the whole Dark Elves through the Underway just doesn't seem right to me.

If you look at the fluff (which is nicely writen, btw), it is at least double the length of any warband introduction I know of.

Let's keep it REALLY simple.

Morathi/The sorceresses notice the Comet. She KNOWS it is important, but does not want to commit her cults forces. Therefore she gives word that the Convents would pay handsomely for Wyrdstone. Adventurous nobles set out to get the stones. Tadaa, simple and effective.
Now your Warband is an adventurous noble setting out to gain wealth in the Old World. He has no special ties to either Cult, he'S out for money.

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:06 pm

Morathi doesn't ahve to be overly secretive and send only a chosen few 500 years ago.

Then why didn't the cult of pleaseure come into the open earlier?

Now your Warband is an adventurous noble setting out to gain wealth in the Old World. He has no special ties to either Cult, he'S out for money.

What if you want him to have ties to the cult? Now he ccan't go there since Morathi doesn't want to spend cult resources.

Pagan-gerbil · Post by **Pagan-gerbil** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:19 pm

If he wants ties to the Cult, then say he has ties - he's not in it for money, he's in it to gain respect within the cult/aid the cult further. That's a player decision. Likewise, your Noble could be working for the Temple of Khaine with the same reasons, or a freelancer, or some other beneficiary if you exchange "Morathi pays..." for "Hellebron pays..." or "Any City Leader/ Highborn/ Really Noble Druchii pays..."
You could even adapt it to other motivations - "Get wyrdstone to discredit HE in human lands" or "Deny skaven/humans access to wyrdstone", each time the Druchii employer being the funder. No detailed plot or background, but room for wiggling if you want your warband to be a little different to the rest.

It's simple and adaptable for most warband setups I can think of.

Besides, the Underway thing doesn't really fit with me at all, I think it'd have been mentioned somewhere if the Druchii could travel to the Empire through the Underway... Nekroskop's idea seems to work far better

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:42 pm

Besides, the Underway thing doesn't really fit with me at all, I think it'd have been mentioned somewhere if the Druchii could travel to the Empire through the Underway... Nekroskop's idea seems to work far better

Maybe not, it's not necessaroly for everyone. Why would we have heard about it by now though? The main druchii interest in the empire so far have been slave raids and a small statue known as "The Tilean Rat."

Nekroskop · Post by **Nekroskop** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:23 pm

Well Morathi does not have to be secretive exactly because that Cult is still secret. At the time of Mortheim, there is no one tying Morathi to a treacherous Slaanesh Cult - at least not openly. Therefore she can fund expeditions to the Old World without anyone asking.

The Underway thingy, well. I just don't like the whole underground aspect, as the Druchii feel a lot more like seafarers to me. They are not the Drow, they basically use the Undersea, not the Underway.

As pagan-gerbil says, if you want to have your highborn to ahve any religious ties, make it so, but we don't have to anchor this in the background.

Oh, and the whole human/high elf disruption story - the empire at that time is at an all time low, fraud with Civil War and Pestilence. Why should the Druchii bother to harm the ties between the rotting empire and Ulthuan?

If there is a prob with Morathi, let Malekith sent out the call for Wyrdstone, though I think him a little too focused on Ulthuan for that. He didn't even bother with Albion...

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:45 pm

The Underway thingy, well. I just don't like the whole underground aspect, as the Druchii feel a lot more like seafarers to me. They are not the Drow, they basically use the Undersea, not the Underway.

So why punish someone with something they'll enjoy?

Oh, and the whole human/high elf disruption story - the empire at that time is at an all time low, fraud with Civil War and Pestilence. Why should the Druchii bother to harm the ties between the rotting empire and Ulthuan?

Because soon after finubar will visit the old world with several high mages to help Magnus the Pious fight off the chaos incursion and then found the colleges of magic in the empire. Pretty good thing to try and avoid I'd say.

Draenor · Post by **Draenor** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:48 am

Mmmm.... I would have to agree with Nekroskop in terms of simplifing the story. Additional fluff and reasons for being can be designed by the player, but initially the background should be simple and straightforward. I'm not proposing anything better, but I would imagine that that would be a critical concern of anyone who is generating ideas at this stage.

The fluff HAS to be understood by non-druchii players, non-war hammer players (WHFB) and new players.

easily.

Nekroskop · Post by **Nekroskop** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:42 am

OK, lets put it this way - the Ungerground angle sounds like a nice idea for one prsonal warband to have a special background, but it takes too much space in the overall fluff.

Instead, as someone before suggested, we should fluff up the "independent" adventurer Druchii. You can see from the way our own online campaign works how many players like being independents.

So we could include fluff about some warbands having gone completely rogue, being seduced by the power the wyrdstone offers them, some seeking to unravel the mystery of the Shadowlord himself, others seeking the thrill of the manhunt in these most dangerous surroundings.

Ansob. · Post by **Ansob.** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:28 pm

Nekroskop wrote:OK, lets put it this way - the Ungerground angle sounds like a nice idea for one prsonal warband to have a special background, but it takes too much space in the overall fluff.

Instead, as someone before suggested, we should fluff up the "independent" adventurer Druchii. You can see from the way our own online campaign works how many players like being independents.

So we could include fluff about some warbands having gone completely rogue, being seduced by the power the wyrdstone offers them, some seeking to unravel the mystery of the Shadowlord himself, others seeking the thrill of the manhunt in these most dangerous surroundings.

See, that's exactly it. Your main background can't have any "ties" (I like the word). It has to be suitably generic.

Arquinsiel wrote:And thereby glossing over how we know about it in the first place.

Yes. Seriously, yes. The integrety of the background story is a billion times more important than details.

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:53 pm

Erm.... fundamental plot points ARE the integrity of the story. I think we should add a bit more about warbands going rogue when they realise how much gold is available to them.

Licanus · Post by **Licanus** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:52 pm

OK, I've got some thoughts for the fluff, these are just ideas so feel free to criticize and generally multilate them

Say druchii raiding parties start capturing caravans or whatever transporting wyrdstone around the empire. Now any half-competent sorceress (accompanying the raiders, on their vessel or a black ark) could tell this stuff is pretty goddamn powerful. So, they make all haste back to naggaroth or the sorceress sends the information back telepathically, whatever. Now, I'm guessing this would cause quite a stir back at malekiths court and so he(possibly with the morathi urging to do so) commands that his highborns send expeditions to Mordheim. The druchii sent could be the youngest sons of highborns sent to prove themselves, adventerous sorts, those who have displeased powerful lords in some way, etc. The wyrdstone they collect could be transferred to raiding vessels that have been ordered to support them, which would also resupply them with equipment or warriors (mordheim is just up the River Stir, I think so anyway, so small raiding vessels would be able to pass up it to prearranged meeting points fairly easily). An army would not be sent to simply capture the city as the druchii are primarily raiders and sending numerous small forces in fits with this, also a large invasion would inform everyone of what they were up to.

Arquinsiel · Post by **Arquinsiel** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:23 pm

(mordheim is just up the River Stir, I think so anyway, so small raiding vessels would be able to pass up it to prearranged meeting points fairly easily).

Except for having to pass through the middle of altdorf and several other towns. Apart from this the only major difference you propose is having Malekith be the instigator of it all as opposed to Morathi. I think the slightly byzantine feel to the opposed factions suits druchii more.

Pagan-gerbil · Post by **Pagan-gerbil** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 4:38 pm

Seeing as Mordheim's setting is being expanded from the core city to include other regions of the Empire (latest Fanatic pdfs on the specialist games site), doesn't that mean resupplying is less of a problem for Druchii? Quick ship, magic fog, does brisk trade there. If a single Witch Elf was sent to do a mission in Tilea (crazed warrior-woman on a mission seems a little bizarre to me) then the Druchii high-ups (we need not drop names) will fund small missions to aid their operatives in the Empire... the wyrdstone will more than pay for it.

Wyrdstone is power, and the way I see it any Druchii aristocrat worth his salt will want it - if not for use then because his enemies want it, and there are any number of enemies for a Druchii looking to advance himself within the complicated politics of Elvenkind.

Druchii Warband Proposed Fluff.

Use this fluff?