The Coldwood Smugglers - a Mordheim Warband

I've been interested in Mordheim for some time but after visiting BOYL 2018 I met some guys who really encouraged me to pick up the game and I've been hooked since that time. This is the first warband I put together: the Coldwood Smugglers, based on the rules for the Stirwood Outlaws.

What follows is a rather long and tedious description of the warband members and their story.

In the Imperial Calendar year 2504, a revolt quaked the free city of Marienburg: the poor were protesting for the increasing prices and the corruption in the government, and soon a leader emerged among them: Johan Hess, a wealthy merchant who had never been involved in politics before. Hess set fire to the masses blaming the ruling council and the Elves for all their problems, and soon violence erupted as the mob assaulted the Elven Town, causing its inhabitants to flee Marienburg abandoning all their properties. The Stadtsraad was quick to admit Hess among its members and make it head of the Directorate. Nobody could expect that a year later Marienburg would be significantly poorer and more corrupt, and ruled by a madman who had the guts to crown himself Emperor of Marienburg. But by that time, all those who could oppose Johann I had been either banished or killed.

The van Noort family were among those who had suffered the most: small traders, they used to buy Indhyan spices, Cathayan tea and Arabyan cotton from the Elves and sell it in the villages of the Wasteland. Without the Elves, all these goods were either unavailable or too expensive to sell. Frederick van Noort, on the verge of bankruptcy, saw no other option that to contact the brothers de Houtman, shady smugglers that helped him get the goods he needed from the ports of Norden and L'Anguille, where the Elves still traded.

This worked, for a time. But one night the wardens fell on the smugglers and captured Jakob and Gert de Houtman. They never came out of the black cells of Rijker's Isle: however, a few days later the guards came for their band members, who escaped after a bloody skirmish. That same day Frederick van Noort was arrested.

Young Olivier van Noort, Frederick's son, was left to lead the family. Vowing vengeance against the Mad Emperor, he left Marienburg. With the help of Fastradil, a former business partner of the van Noorts and survivor of the Elven revolt, Olivier was able to negotiate passage of goods from Hargendorf in Nordland to the borders of the Wasteland through the secret paths of the forest of Laurelorn and its western fringe, known to locals as the Coldwood. To move the goods he hired some woodsmen from the border villages, people with no allegiance except for themselves. This is how the band of the Coldwood Smugglers was born.

Olivier van Noort - Bandit Leader
Eldest son of Frederick, Olivier is only 24 years old. He had a privileged upbringing but in the last two years he discovered what a hard life really is. Determined to save his family from ruin and do what he can to fight the Mad Emperor, Olivier is now running the smuggling and sale of exotic goods from Nordland into the villages of the Wasteland. Olivier is armed with his family's heirloom, a steel two-handed sword with a gilded hilt. The miniature is Citadel's Strider from the Fellowship of the Ring Boxed Set BME1, issued in 1985.

Pieter de Grote - Champion
Pieter is the biggest fellow in his village, a burly woodsman wielding a two-handed axe with strength, precision and rare viciousness. Pieter is not nice and few people like him, but least of all the representatives of the law: he has spent a good time in a cell, just because he would not stop a brawl when the guards showed up. Pieter met Olivier in the woods one day and the young merchant, instead of being intimidated like everyone else, asked him if he wanted to make some extra money carrying heavy bags. Pieter was enthusiastic, and in fact he helped recruiting the other woodsmen, for whom he acts as representative. Pieter's miniature is a MM62 Marauder Villager from 1989.

Kees de Houtman - Petty Thief
Kees is the youngest of the brothers de Houtman. When his brothers Jakob and Gert were taken by the city guards, he narrownly escaped with his life. Now fighting the Mad Emperor has become his main objective. These days he helps Olivier run the business, supervising the smugglers and the moving of goods in the Wasteland. Cornelis's figure is a Citadel C04 Mugger from 1986.

Kiliaen van Rensslaer - Priest of Stromfels (Manann)
Old Kiliaen has been a member of the de Houtman gang for many years. Through his life he's been a cut-throat, wrecker, smuggler and moonshiner. Fifteen years ago, after he survived a shipwreck, he had strange dreams and decided to become a priest of the forbidden cult of Stromfels. Today, he is widely considered a giver of blessings by the criminals of Marienburg. He has a bad drinking habit but the brothers de Houtman always kept a place fot him in the gang, and he is grateful to them for that. He helped young Cornelis escape from the guards and now follows him, well aware that the guards have his name on their black list of most wanted. His miniature is a Citadel C04 Thief from 1983.

Gerbrand de Kort - Marsksman
Gerbrand the Short is a hunter. Middle-aged, poor, ugly, short and curt, he has no wife and few friends, one of them Pieter. He agreed to join the band hoping for a better life and a decent old age. The miniature is a Citadel ME25 Rangers of Ithilien from 1985.

Werner de Lange - Marsksman
Werner is a hunter. Word is that he used to be a gamekeeper when he was young, but he was sent away by his master for some misbehaviour. A tall man, Werner does not love to talk too much: his words are few, direct and often harsh. He has no friends and spends most of his time alone, but Pieter and Gerbrand went to look for him and he accepted eagerly to be part of the new enterprise. Miniature is a Bretonnian Bowman from the 1990s.

Klaas de Schrander - Marsksman
Klaas is a young hunter, well known in the village for being shrewd, patient and clear of mind. He has no intention of living a life of hardships in the wood and hopes to put some money aside to start a new life somewhere else. The figure is a Citadel ADD7 AD&D Ranger from 1985, sculpted by the Perry brothers.

Without shield

With shield

Roel de Rood - Marsksman
Red-haired Roel is one year younger than Klaas and a good friend to him. He comes from a large and dirt-poor family of woodsmen and would like to bring home some decent food. Unlike Klaas, Roel is more of a romantic and idealistic and enjoys adventure for the sake of it. The figure is a Citadel ADD7 AD&D Ranger from 1985, sculpted by the Perry brothers.

Without shield

With shield

Brandir the Adventurer - Citadel Elf Warrior (1987)

Some NPCs are so good they eventually become PCs. This is the story of one of them, Brandir.

Brandir's story begins with that of his older brother Gelmir. The two are born, together with a third sister, from a poor Sea Elf family living in the miserable village of Grilm, on the coast of the Wasteland. Father dies at sea when the children are young. Mother is slain by Greenskins during a raid, while the kids hide under the bed. The three survive by begging and stealing.
 

Then, at some point Brandir's story takes a different turn, a grimmer one than his siblings who will eventually get saved and adopted. Little Brandir, while in the gutters of Zeaburg, is lured with an apple by a smiling man and invited into a private house. He gets a hit on the head and drops unconscious. He is taken away. The man is a thief and smuggler, and he also, in his own way, adopts Brandir, but he is far less kind than Elmerin. Brandir learns to steal and stab and trick and becomes, willing or not, part of Johann the Lame's band of footpads and cutthroats. They spend most of their time in Marienburg but travel the Wasteland when times are hard and the guards are on their trail.

Years pass, and eventually Johann the Lame gets old. Brandir has little love for him and, at the first good chance, he takes over the band and offers the old man a kind choice between retiring to a dilapidated country hut with little to no pension, but alive, or retire at the bottom of a canal of the Kruiersmuur, with no need of any pension. Johann makes the wise choise.

A few members of the band, the old ones, leave, but new ones join and soon Brandir's band increases its business substantially. The Elf is young and less cautious than Johann, taking risks that offer high returns. He seems blessed by Ranald, and his reputation grows, until one day he is introduced to an ascending merchant, going by the name of Johann Hess.

In order to make his family rich, Hess has his fingers in many pies, including illegal ones. Smuggling is one of them and, with his activities growing, he needs to outsource the extra job to smart people. Soon Brandir starts making a lot of money, especially with those new shipments of closed crates coming from Norsca. All marked with a red X and solidly nailed so no one can spy their contents.

It is when some members of his band start displaying strange signs of mutation that Brandir decides to do what he has been explicitly asked not to do: open one of the crates. It is full of shards of black, iridescent stone.

That is his last delivery. He goes to see Hess and tells him he's not feeling well and wants to leave the business for some time. But Hess guesses Brandir knows more than he says. The same night, coming back at his band's den, Brandir finds assassins. He barely escapes with a few men, but loses all his savings. At dawn he silently navigates the marshes on a rowboat, headed at Lame Johann's hut. It's empty, the old man must have died years ago.

Enraged at Hess's betrayal Brandir plans revenge, but he decides to wait - too many people are looking for him in Marienburg. He spends some time in the town of Bokel, across the frontier of Nordland, but he soon finds out the Warpstone has tainted him: he has started losing all the hair on his body.

It is several months after his flight that Brandir returns to Marienburg. By now he has become completely glabrous, even losing his eyelashes. He wears a hood over his head or, sometimes, a wig. He calls himself Gelmir, the name of his lost brother. Working isn't easy when nobody knows you and, desperate for money, Brandir enters a gambling house planning to get something to start again. But the games are rigged, and the house belongs to Hess. Soon he has an outstanding debt, and Hess's thugs are on his trail once again.

With two companions he boards a ship bound for Erengrad, where he hides for a while. It is here that his brother finds him: hunted by Hess, the real Gelmir find the impostor, recognizing him as his long lost, and now mutant, brother. Together, they vow revenge on Hess and on his network of warpstone smuggling, funded by the Skaven. And so it begins Brandir's life as a PC.

 

The miniature I choose for Brandir is no. 9 in 1988 Citadel Catalogue, Elf Warrior Category. It is marked as "Elf" and dated 1987, so it probably debuted on an earlier White Dwarf, The line is designed by Jes Goodwin and Aly Morrison: it's not clear who sculpted this particular figure but my guess is Jes Goodwin.

There are lots of things to like in this sculpt. The simplicity first of all. Lots of empty areas to freely paint. Then the shady look - there is something thievish with this hooded Elf, shield raised and sword reared, leather jacket, bag across the shoulder and a rope hanging from the side.

Missing the original shield, I recycled a 15mm Medieval shield which looks enough like a buckler, where I painted the device of Liria, a free city of sea merchants on the eastern borders of Tilea.

Comments? Did you also happen to turn NPCs into PCs? Leave some feedback below!