Sir Gwyn's Lament - A Path to Glory

[Loafingstone]

Hi all!

First post on tga. I've been in the hobby about 11 years but I'm only just now taking my first steps into AoS. I was a fairly active player of 7th and 8th edition warhammer and people may (or may not) have seen my Halfling army and steampunk orcs.

Coming back into the hobby again I wanted to do something a bit different (despite having a vast destruction force gathering dust in the attic!). Reading the generals handbook I came across the path to glory rules. I love the idea of slowly building a force and letting the dice god's decide what joins my army. I also want to combine the painting and modelling with another of my hobbies, creative writing.

The seed of all this was a model I found in my collection that dates back to when I was 15 and was the first conversion I had ever successfully completed:

I've always loved this conversion and I wanted to give the model a new lease of life. He will be the leader of my Chaos force as a Lord of Chaos on Daemonic Steed. After a months worth of effort in my limited free time he has turned out like this:

I'm really pleased with how he has come out as I had no real colour scheme in mind when I started. I will go in to more detail about my Lords backstory and how the force will be generated later but for now comments and feedback are most welcome

[Loafingstone]

Moving on to the mechanics of how this is all going to work. As stated above I will be following the path to glory tables for Chaos in the Generals Handbook. Because I have chosen a Chaos Lord on Daemonic Steed I get six rolls against the path to glory table. After each roll I will acquire and paint the choice and add them to the growing story of Sir Gwyn.

For my first roll I picked the hero's table and since I've decided on a bit of a Nurgle theme I went with a roll from the Nurgle table. This is essentially a bit of a con as the table is:

1: Chaos Spawn
2 - 6: Nurgle Sorcerer

I rolled a 3...

[Loafingstone]

The Lament of Sir Gwyn

His last thoughts had been of his family. He was sure about that. He remembered a city. The sky a maelstrom of colours and sound, vortices and madness. The world was ending and yet he still fought on. Shoulder to shoulder with his fellow men as he repelled wave after wave of godless monstrosities. Chittering mouths and tentacles had reached for him, whispering lies and damnation and yet he still fought on. There were so few of them left now. 

When it came, the deathblow had come from nowhere. He had felt a shooting pain cut through his right eye like nothing before. He had fallen from his horse then. As his life blood had bled from him he had pleaded for salvation, pleaded for the lives of his family, pleading for life. Pleading to any of the uncaring god's who happened to be listening.

As he stared up at the maelstrom, the cries for mercy on his lips, it reached down from the heavens and engulfed him.

All was light, all was darkness. Every moment was a second, a lifetime.

He awoke in a mossy grove surrounded by fir trees bent and bowed as if submitting to an unseen master. The man rose unsteadily to his feet. Looking down he found himself clad in his armour, though he could not see any of the clasps or straps. The armour appeared to be sealed around him.

The man checked his arms and face, convinced that this could not be real. But in that moment his body felt enthused with a life that made everything before pail in comparison.

He looked around and saw his horse, drinking from a pool on the other side of the grove. 

Making his way over to the pool, he rubbed his hand along his horses flank and looked down into the pool. The water rippled as if moved by an unseen wind. The man’s eyes narrowed as he tried to make out his reflection, the figures in the pool seeming to bear no resemblance to him or his horse. As the ripples in the pool began to settle a voice called from across the clearing.

“Ser Gwyn!”

He turned to see an old man walking across the grove. He walked with a slight limp but he could see even from here there was a kindness in his eyes. He was flanked by two children, a boy and a girl, the boy stocky with long hair, the girl thin and spindly.



As the man approached a kindly smile crossed his craggy weathered face.

“It appears you have become lost in my garden, come let me show you the way.”

See Gwyn frowned slightly.

“Your… garden?”

The old man laughed then, the sound ringing out across the clearing.

“Well I see it as my garden, or at least an extension of it.”

The old man gestured around the clearing.

“Me and my young charges tend to this place, help it grow. But the woods have become.dangerous lately, the tree’s have grown... restless

The old man frowned slightly before the smile reappeared in an instance.

“But fortune graces us good Ser that you are here. I can help you find your way and you can help protect us from the unquiet woodlands beyond here.”

Ser Gwyn frowned, considering the man's offer. He thought of his vows and his duty to protect the serfs of his kingdom.

“So be it good man, if you can lead me from this forest I will gladly protect you and your charges.”

The old man smiled, though the smile did not seem to reach his eyes.

“I will certainly set you on the right path good knight, follow me.”

With that the old man and the two children lead Ser Gwyn past the quiet pool and into the forest. 

Collecting his horse See Gwyn followed the unusual band. As he walked the boy began to sing, his wavering voice discordant against the calm backdrop.

Taking a final look around the clearing Ser Gwyn pressed on into the forest.

[Tommy]

Welcome back! I have a few older conversions like that where I simply stuck parts of various models together with no motivation other than to make something unique - not sure anyone else would think much of them, but there's a nostalgia in them for me that's a great part of their charm.

[Chillpill]

That back story is great!

[Kramer]

Great read! Get some me curious to read on. Keep me coming! And I might steal your idea of using a random roll for adding to your army as I'm currently stuck in so many ideas nothing is really happening on my slaanesh force! 

Also love the use of your first conversion! I will see if I can't find mine as well. Would be a great thread. 

[Ogniem Plujacy]

More! More! I want more! Both of conversions and the story...

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[Loafingstone]

Thank you all for your kind comments, I'm glad you are enjoying the story as well as the models.

With the Sorcerer finished it was time to throw myself on the mercy of the Chaos god's and find out what I would be painting next. I decided that a good force should start with some units that I could use as battleline if I wanted to play a matched play game. On this basis I chose the "Any God: Units" table. 

However the gods are fickle and laugh at the plans of meer mortals so I promptly rolled a 1 and added 2 Chaos Spawn to Sir Gwyn's side! Nothing like an unexpected twist to spice up the direction of the story!

For the first spawn I looked to my pile of unpainted miniatures and pulled out this gem:

It's called bad JuJu from the Malifaux range. A shambling mound of rotting earth and detritus fits in quite well with what I want from this force. 

On that note if anyone has a Albion Fenbeast they want to part with I'd be interested.

Backstory and progress pics to follow. Stay tuned for more...