I've decided to spend a bit more time exploring Warhammer Age of Sigmar this winter. Why? Well, I've developed a bit of a fantasy itch that needs scratching. So I am hoping this works before I reenter Middle Earth!
So, let's dive into the wonderfully creepy world of the Gloomspite Gitz!
The Details
Title: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Gloomspite
Author: Andy Clark
Publisher: Black Library
Commercial Fluff
The Bad Moon looms over the city of Draconium, and Watch Captain Helena Morthan knows it bodes ill for the town. Can she and grieving warrior Hendrick Saul defeat the plans of the Gloomspite Loonking and save their people?
In the dark corners of the Mortal Realms, the mysterious Gloomspite Gitz go to war, following the trail of their abominable deity. Nowhere is beyond the sight of the Bad Moon, not even places under Sigmar's protection.
As Draconium suffers beneath the scalding rain of Aqshy, tensions rise. Blades are drawn in the streets, doomsayers preach the end of days, and insects are eating watchmen alive. When grieving warrior Hendrick arrives with his warband and a prophetic warning, Captain Morthan sees a chance to save her people.
But with Skragrott the Loonking plotting beneath the city and the Bad Moon hanging overhead, will there be anything left to save?
The Review
Okay. That was a fun story! I thoroughly enjoyed Gloomspite from start to finish. It's well written, wonderfully creepy, and packed with the sort of escalating madness that makes you want to keep turning the pages. One of my favourite touches is the creepy nursery rhyme that opens each act. These little snippets set the mood beautifully, giving the story an unsettling fairytale quality. They also leave you wondering what they're hinting at and how the words might connect to the horrors about to unfold. It's a simple device, but it works brilliantly. Every time one appeared, I found myself wondering what fresh nastiness was waiting around the corner, and trust me, there's plenty of nastiness to go around!
At the heart of the story is a band of adventurers for hire. They're a motley collection of characters who wouldn't feel out of place in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Following the death of their leader, and his final, desperate warning, the group heads towards Draconium to alert the city to an approaching threat. Now, telling you exactly what that threat involves would spoil some of the fun, so I'll keep my mouth shut. Let's just say the grots are involved, and things are about to get rather unpleasant!
I really enjoyed following this group. They're not invincible champions destined to save the world, nor are they grand heroes with shiny armour and an endless supply of plot armour. They're adventurers trying to survive a situation that's rapidly spiralling out of control, and that makes all the difference.
Everything Goes Wrong. Then It Gets Worse.
In classic Black Library fashion, the best-laid plans start falling apart almost immediately. Events escalate from bad to worse, and before long, Draconium is descending into utter chaos. There's fighting in the streets, trouble within the palace, and even the natural world seems to be turning against the city's inhabitants. There's a lot happening here, but I never found myself confused or struggling to keep track of events. Clark manages to balance the different characters and plot threads while maintaining a sense of impending doom, and more importantly, the danger feels real.
Characters can die suddenly, and the story doesn't always give you much warning before things go horribly wrong. That uncertainty had me genuinely worried about the characters I was following. When losses came, they had an impact because I'd become invested in these people and wanted them to make it through alive. There's no guarantee that the heroes will pull off some incredible feat at the last possible moment. Sometimes, people make mistakes. Sometimes, they're simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sometimes, the bad guys are just better prepared than you are.
Creepy, Grim and Gloriously Dangerous
This is what I loved most about Gloomspite. There's no need for every confrontation to end with an epic boss fight or some over-the-top heroic moment. Instead, we get a gritty, dangerous adventure where ordinary people are caught up in something far bigger and nastier than they can properly understand. The atmosphere is fantastic, the tension keeps building, and the Gloomspite Gitz make for wonderfully unsettling antagonists. Their strange relationship with the Bad Moon and their delightfully twisted approach to warfare give the story a personality all of its own.
It's fantasy horror at its best: a creeping sense that something is horribly wrong, followed by the slow realisation that things are much worse than you thought. I went into this book hoping for an entertaining Age of Sigmar story, and I came away thoroughly satisfied. It was a joy to read, more so than many of the other books I've tackled recently, and, perhaps most importantly, it has made me even more interested in the Gloomspite Gitz as a potential painting project.
Those little lunatics might just be finding their way onto my hobby desk!
Final Thoughts
I highly recommend Gloomspite by Andy Clark. It's creepy, chaotic, well-paced and full of characters you genuinely worry about. The nursery rhymes are a brilliant touch, the escalating disaster kept me hooked, and the story never loses sight of the danger facing its cast. If you're looking for a Warhammer Age of Sigmar novel that delivers more than just big battles and heroic speeches, give this one a go.
Just don't expect everything to turn out all right.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some potential Gloomspite Gitz miniatures to investigate. This could be the beginning of a very silly painting project!
Cheers for reading, and I'll see you on the next adventure!
A Sector 102 Adventure // The Moon Is Watching
(A proposed Sector 102 idea inspired by Gloomspite.)
What if the people of a small settlement outside Mega-City One began reporting strange incidents whenever an enormous, glowing object appeared in the night sky? At first, the problems seem harmless enough. Strange rhymes are scrawled across walls, vermin swarm through the streets, and residents start behaving in increasingly bizarre ways. Then the power fails, communications go down, and people begin disappearing.
The local authorities suspect a mutant gang or a cult operating in the surrounding ruins. But the deeper the investigation goes, the more it seems that the settlement itself is being prepared for something. Perhaps the glowing object is an ancient orbital weapon, a mutant beacon, or a piece of forgotten technology that has drawn something out of the Cursed Earth. Or perhaps the locals are simply seeing patterns in the sky that aren't really there.
The truth would be yours to decide.
For tabletop gaming, this could become a series of linked scenarios: investigate the strange graffiti, protect a settlement during a vermin infestation, hunt down a missing patrol, and finally explore the underground tunnels where the source of the trouble is believed to be hiding.
You could use almost any miniatures you have available. Mutants, cultists, fantasy goblins, alien creatures, or even ordinary citizens caught up in a nightmare could all work. The important thing is the atmosphere. Let the players discover clues, hear unsettling rumours, and gradually realise that the problem is much bigger than they first thought, and keep the explanation hidden until you're ready.
Because in Sector 102, the most terrifying thing in the sky might not be a moon.
It might be whatever is looking back at you from it.
