Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

CONTENTS

C lick
ton
a v igate! WYRD
CHRONICLES 25
FOREWORD...................................................................................1
Designing New Masters........................................................... 3
:
Notaeny pagen Puppet Strings........................................................................ 7
on tur
Click er to re x!
b
num his inde
to t
Praise The Oyabun.................................................................. 20
Chain Gang.............................................................................. 26
Creation of New Gremlin Families......................................... 39
Rust and Ruin........................................................................ 44
Family Feud.............................................................................. 53

content guide

stories terrain game sessions mechanics fun & tactics painting battle-reports gallery

Creative Director Graphic Artist Contributing Authors

Credits Nathan Caroland

Layout
Jorge Gomez
John Cason
Alex Cairns
Mike Wallace
Justin Gibbs
Ben Counter
Justin Gibbs Mason Crawford
John Cason Illustrations Mario Martino
Hardy Fowler Mark Bingham
Editor Jorge Gomez
Justin Gibbs
Mason Crawford

Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

 FOREWORD
GenCon is over, and it's time for Wyrd to move on to the task of making sure everyone gets their
orders as quickly as possible. The warehouse is full, and everyone is moving full steam ahead.

For the design team, the time after GenCon is filled with planning for the year ahead. We take stock
of the past year and figure out what projects we can accomplish in the months ahead.

This year, though, we have the bittersweet news that Justin is no longer going to be working with the
team. He has contributed so much to Wyrd's games and to the design team that it's going to be a
different place without him. Justin is moving on to other opportunities, though, so we wish him all
the best.

In the meantime, we're going to keep Malifaux, and all of our games, moving in the right direction.
I have a lot of faith in Mason and Lindsey, so I'm sure they won't let me mess up our games too
much! Joking aside, I think we have another amazing year ahead of us, and I look forward to taking
that journey with you.

-Aaron

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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 Designing New Masters
The most notable element of the new Malifaux
book, Ripples of Fate, is the inclusion of a new
Master for each Faction. Of course, designing
a Master is an in-depth and difficult task, so I
wanted to give you a glimpse into the process
behind each Master here.
Our biggest design goal was that each Master
would bring something new to the table. In this
spirit, many of the Masters break their respective
Faction molds a little bit, allowing players loyal
to that Faction to expand their playstyles. In
addition to breaking the Faction molds, many of
the Masters bring entirely new mechanics and
aesthetics to Malifaux.
I will start with Nellie Cochrane in the Guild. Nellie
is a reporter, and I wanted her mechanics to reflect
her story. This meant that she would not be a
very combat-oriented Master, which also helped
to differentiate her from the other Guild Masters
a little bit more. The two major archetypes Guild
is missing are a summoning Master and a control
Master. Because control and manipulation fit
better with the reporter theme, thats the route
I chose to take. I built Nellie around the idea
that she would gain Evidence as the game
progressed, and she could spend it to further
influence the board, as I felt this was both very
thematic and the sort of resource-intensive play
which the Guild lacked.
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Justin Gibbs
Initially Nellie was a bit too powerful. Run From
the Truth worked on all Attacks (not just failures),
and attacking near her was nearly impossible.
In addition to that, her Evidence Condition
ticked down by a value of 1 every Turn, allowing
her to stack up massive amounts of Evidence.
After a number of playtest games in which her
opponents struggled to do anything against her,
we came up with her current iteration in which
Run From the Truth only works on failed Attacks,
and all Evidence is lost at the end of the Turn.
Of course, many months of playtesting went into
every Master and I am summarizing here, but
those were some of the major turning points
in her testing process. Once all of the changes
were made, Nellie settled as a Master who could
wreak havoc in skilled hands, but could crumble
if used improperly.
Reva is a Master which Aaron initially pitched
and designed. Part of the goal with Reva was
moving away from the Resurrectionist reliance on
summoning and giving them a Master who could
deal damage at range. Of course, we also wanted
to keep the undead theme of the Faction, so
Aaron came up with a unique way of using corpse
markers. Reva can measure range and LoS from
any corpse marker within 18 of her, giving her
a great threat range that only increases as the
game progresses and more things are killed.
 One of the major challenges with Reva was
making sure that she could not perform deadly
first-turn strikes against her opponent that
ended the game before it even started. She is
a highly mobile Master with good combat and
a way to Attack at range, so this alpha strike
was a major concern. After extensive testing and
some numbers tweaking (you may have noticed
that Reva has a slightly shorter Wk than most
mounted models), we determined that she was
set to go. I expect alpha striking to still be a
common tactic with Reva early on after release,
but as people learn to watch for it and adjust
their tactics, I am confident that it will not be
problematic. Players who rely on it will find their
Master isolated and easily taken apart. Reva is
a precision instrument, and she should not be
thrown forward too early.
Sandeep is one of the most unique Masters
coming out of this book. He is a generalist who
mixes summoning with decent melee, good
survivability, and the ability to loan out his
Ca Actions to other friendly models. In this way,
Sandeep is a force multiplier who allows cheaper
models to take his superior attacks or simply
access his useful range of toolbox Actions. In
addition to this, he can summon his massive
totem, Banasuva, to do some massive damage.
The major challenge with Sandeep was properly
managing his complexity. Each of his Actions can
only be used by another model once per Turn,
forcing players to track which Actions have been
used and which Actions have not. Initially, other
models could use Actions on Sandeeps Upgrades
as well, but to reduce the tracking required by the
player, I limited the available Actions to Sandeeps
stat card alone. In this way, a player will only ever
have to look at a single card when deciding which
Action to take (instead of a whole pile of them),
and they can easily be tracked with a dot from
an erasable marker, etc. Of course, this made
his Action loaning slightly less powerful, so to
compensate, the available actions went up a tad
in power. Often, design decisions are made not
just because of balance or story but because of
ease of use for the player.
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Titania is the Neverborn tank. She is incredibly
survivable and heals easily. In addition to this,
she can easily tie down opponents and drop
scheme markers, which is an area in which
Neverborn Masters are traditionally weak. This
mode of play was decided on both because it
highly benefited the Faction and because it was
intensely thematic for Titania. She is the risen
Queen, awakened from deathless slumber; killing
her should not be easy. She is also closely tied to
the nature theme in the faction, and her Scheme
Markers represent the forest reclaiming what
rightfully belongs to Titania.
Many of Titanias abilities are closely tied to
Scheme Markers, so she needed many ways to
drop them easily. However, we also needed to be
careful not to make any of the actual Schemes too
easy for her to accomplish. We did this by making
the generation of Scheme Markers for Titania and
her Crew much less precise, with Markers often
being dropped near an opposing model. In this
way, Titania may drop more Scheme Markers than
even Colette does at times, but because she has
difficulty getting them exactly where she needs
them, she does not completely dominate Marker-
based Schemes.
Parker Barrows helps to round the theme of the
Outcast Faction a bit by introducing more outlaw
humans. The entire Faction cant be undead
monstrosities and Tyrants! This Master was
pitched and initially written by Mason, and he did
an excellent job of working the bandit theme into
Parkers mechanics. Parker is a flexible Master
who can swap Upgrades mid-game, and he uses
his opponents Scheme Markers against them
(after all, any proper robber should be able to
steal the opponents resources).
A major challenge with Parker was balancing
his Upgrade-swapping mechanics. Initially, he
could attach any Upgrade which he could have
purchased at the start of the game, but that led
to players abusing Oathkeeper. To prevent this,
we limited him to attaching his own Upgrades.
Unfortunately, this limited his options a bit too
much. In response, we designed a few extra
Upgrades for Parker, and now he has one of the
widest selections of Upgrades in the entire game.
 Zipp is one of the most interesting new Masters to
appear in this book. He is a control and disruption
Master, although he does not do it in the typical
way. Rather than relying on Obey like Zoraida or
damaging auras like Pandora, Zipp darts around
the board and simply gets in everyones way. He
is the fastest model in the game, he can prevent
Interact Actions, and he can even drop blocking
markers and rearrange the opponents models.
He pays a price for all of this, though; he cannot
Interact himself.
Unfortunately, I do not have enough space in this
article to outline every twist and turn which design
took along the way to create seven new Masters.
I didnt even get into the fact that Phiona Gage
(the new Guild Henchman) actually started out as
an Arcanist Master! I am simplifying the process
in many of these cases, and a lot more work and
testing went into these new crews than I can
say here. However, I hope that this brief glimpse
helps you better understand our process and get
excited about these dynamic new additions to the
game we all know and love.

The difficult thing about Zipp was that, while we

have models similar to him in Malifaux, we had
never done it with a Master. He originally had
Chatty (which prevented Interact Actions entirely),
but we quickly found that this was too powerful on
such a mobile model and particularly on a Master
(which is generally a difficult model to kill). To
deal with this, we replaced Chatty with an ability
which forced the opponent to discard two cards in
order to Interact. This was still highly limiting, but
it prevented Zipp from simply rendering certain
Schemes impossible.

Asami is the long-awaited Ten Thunders Oni

summoner! I have known for a few years now
that I wanted to give the Ten Thunders a Master
who could summon Oni, and with this book I
finally had my chance. Asami has many of the
typical hallmarks of a Malifaux summoner: she
requires higher cards to summon more expensive
models, she is generally a support piece, etc.
However, she is very unique in that the models
she summons disappear after a certain number
of Turns due to the Flicker Condition, rather than
coming in damaged.

Summoning Masters are always a tad difficult

to manage due to a need to balance their
effectiveness against their ability to flood the
board with models. For Asami, the big limiting
factor to her power is the Flicker Condition.
This forces her to use her models as quickly as
she can, often getting only one or two AP out
of them before they disappear. This line of play
forced Asami to be in the thick of the fighting,
and balancing her survivability against her most
effective playstyle was a bit of a challenge. After
extensive playtesting and numerous number
tweaks, I think the Ten Thunders walked away
with an amazing new Master.

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 WYRD IS SUPPORTING
LOCAL STORES
We will be doing one of our Local Game Store (LGS)
promotions every month this year!

These promotions generally consist of an extra model

added into a new release or the ability to receive a free
special edition model if you spend a certain amount of
money through your local store.

These promotions only apply to purchases made

at physical game stores. We do this because we
understand what a fundamental role stores play in our
industry, and this is our way of saying thank you!

HERE IS THIS MONTH'S

PROMOTION:
Spend $60 or more at your LGS and
AUGUST receive a random translucent model
from the Hamelin box.

These are subject to change. Further details will

be available during the actual promotions, proof of
purchase is necessary.

Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

 Puppet Strings
"But what does Empress Wu desire?" said
Yinping, pirouetting the puppet across the stage.
The bunraku gamboled across scenery painted to
depict a fanciful Asian palace. A deft tug of her
strings made her curtsy, then spring up in a ballet
dancer's leap.
"She is wise, but she is cruel! She is cultured, but
she is a monster! Behold as she bids her own sons
to compete for her favor!"
Wu beckoned the other two puppets from the wings
of the miniature theater. Li Hong was warlike, and
his wooden face painted an angry red with fearsome
black eyebrows. Li Xian was dressed and painted as
a scholar, with scrolls tucked into his blue robes and
a white, placid face.
"Hong believes he should rule as the future
Emperor, for he is the greatest warrior in the land!
But Xian says the wisest should rule and that Hong
will destroy his people in pursuit of glory! Which
will prevail? Thus begins the trial that will split the
Imperial Court in two!"
Yinping looked up expectantly from his position
bent over the puppetry stage. The few dozen faces
that looked back at him did not seem particularly
enthralled, but his performance had only just begun.
That was to be expected, he told himself after all,
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Ben Counter
there were only a few people seated in the town hall
who might be familiar with this form of puppetry,
and the rest were from cultures without a history
of bunraku theater. They wouldn't engage right
away. And of the three children sitting in the front
row, the girl in the red checked dress was definitely
interested in the bright and intricate puppets. He
hadn't lost them, not yet. He could fascinate them.
He could win them over.
From Hong's sleeve sprang a bright, sharp blade,
spring-loaded into the puppet's hollow forearm. A
few eyebrows raised, and the anticipation in the
audience rose. That always worked. The possibility
of violence ignited the imagination.
"Li Hong scorns the scholarly pursuits of his
brother. A true leader needs only a sharp sword
and the will to use it!" Hong gamboled across the
stage, stabbing and slashing at imaginary enemies.
Yinping's fingers worked as quickly as spiders'
legs pulling at the strings to send Hong spinning
and hacking, while Xian backed away with his head
bowed in fear.
Did they know how long it took to learn how to perform
with such dexterity? Perhaps a couple of the Three
Kingdoms folks in the audience had an idea of what
it took. Yinping had been practicing for years, first
the basic steps and gestures, then the intricacy of
keeping three bunraku interacting at once and aping
 the subtlest human gestures. Yinping's fingers were
gnarled and knobbed like broken twigs. The tendons
stood out like taut piano strings. If the audience had
understood what this performance took, they would
be on their feet.
Hong thrust and jabbed. Xian ducked and jumped
out of the way. Then Xian began to dance, the mark
of an educated and cultured soul. The two circled
one another as Wu watched in the background,
nodding her head in silent glee to see her sons at
each others throats.
Hong leaped on his brother, cutting at Xian with a
violent thrust. Xian struggled as Hong's wooden
fingers closed around his neck.
"It seems Li Hong is surely to be the end of his
brother! His hands are bloody, his blade is keen!"
Behind the two feuding brothers, Empress Wu
looked on with the corners of her articulated mouth
turned up in an expectant grin.
Yinping took a wooden flute and clamped it between
his teeth. He blew a simple reedy tune as Xian rose
to his feet and danced again, this time taking the
center of the stage. He danced to Yinping's tune
with traditional gestures of sorrow, brotherhood
and hope, spreading his arms as if imploring the
heavens, then sweeping down low as if swooning
in despair. It was complex and extremely difficult
to coordinate. It was all too easy to tangle Xian's
strings or leave a limb dangling and unattended. But
Yinping kept the bunraku dancing from one side of
the stage to another.
As Yinping's focus increased, the audience was
losing theirs. They were rough mining folk with their
faces and hands still stained with the black dust
of the mineshafts. A couple of them looked like
professionals barbers or shopkeepers, perhaps a
schoolmarm but most were simple people without
much appreciation for the highest arts. He would
lose them if he was not careful. They did not want
to see Xian dancing, no matter how well-practiced a
puppeteer the scene required.
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Yinping had to take drastic action. Hong leapt to
his feet and whirled his sword around his head.
He lunged at his brother, and thrust the blade just
under Xian's outstretched arm. From the front, it
would look like one bunraku had impaled the other.
Xian's puppet had a concealed cavity in the
abdomen, activated by a wire that was rarely pulled.
Yinping pulled it now, and the door in Xian's stomach
snapped open. A handful of wadded red silk tumbled
out in a startling facsimile of blood pouring from the
wounded brother's body.
A gasp went up from the audience. Not an expression
of true Grand Guignol horror, but definitely a gasp.
The girl in the red checked dress put her hand to her
mouth in shock. One burly miner seated near the
black clapped a couple of times with a dim smile
on his face, as if it took the sight of gore even
stylized, highly artistic gore to activate his brain
functions.
Xian took some moments to die. He dragged himself
along the stage, trailing his silken guts behind him.
His hand waved feebly towards his brother, perhaps
weakly cursing him, perhaps in the hope his brother
would take his hand in his final moments. Then he
flopped to the stage, his strings limp.
Empress Wu clapped her hands in glee as Hong
gazed down at his dead brother, sword still in hand.
Yinping pulled a lever at the side of the puppetry
stage and a pair of red curtains fell into place,
signaling the end of the show.
The audience clapped. Not riotously, it was true.
Not crying out for more. It was more polite than
rapturous. But they clapped. The little girl chattered
excitedly to her mother about what she had just
seen.
They liked it.
 "I must say," said Jocasta MacClaine, proprietor of
Blasted Stump's music hall-schoolhouse-town hall,
"I have never seen anything quite like these. I take
it they are traditional among your people?"
In the small back room that passed for the backstage
area of the hall, Yinping was packing away his
puppet show. One case held the stage, which folded
cunningly away to fit into a box the size of a small
suitcase. The other case was lined with purple felt
with indentations for each of the three puppets,
their strings and paddles, and extra costumes. "The
bunraku originated in Japan," he said, "in the time
before the unification. Now they perform tales from
across the Three Kingdoms. They have done so for
hundreds of years!"
"You don't say." Jocasta was a hefty woman with
a square bovine face and the bell skirts of a
schoolteacher, one of the functions she fulfilled in
Blasted Stump. She was also the mayor's notary,
payroll administrator, surgeon's assistant, and
deputy sheriff. She poked at Xian's face, moving the
articulated features of the puppets face. Yinping
fought the instinct to grab her wrist and stop her.
"Yes, quite the curiosity, these little fellows."
"I have many different shows," said Yinping. "I can
perform the whole Romance of the Seven Emperors!
Of course that is rather heavy to begin with. The
Tragedy of the Haunted Well Maiden is always most
memorable. I believe the fine people of this town
would particularly enjoy the Tale of the Undying
Knife Man, or the Eight Dream-Demon Ballads.
I have the repertoire to keep the folks of Blasted
Stump enthralled for years!"
"Ah," said Jocasta MacClaine, a look of reluctance
on her face. "I see we have had a misunderstanding.
Mr Yingping, I hired you for one performance only.
Your act is... unique around these parts, but it's
not the kind of entertainment I can sell week after
week. Blasted Stump is hardly the sort of town that
can support a performer full-time."
"But... you don't have to support me! Not with
money. I'll take room and board, Miss MacClaine.
My puppets will grow on the townsfolk, I just know
it! Just give me a chance, and..."
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"Mr Yinping," said Jocasta, her voice taut.
"Desperation does not become a soul. If you had
a troupe of ladies who could shake their derrieres
every night, perhaps I might find a way to give
you a monthly spot on my stage, but all you have
is puppets. I am sorry to disappoint you, but the
matter is closed."
"Just one more chance," pleaded Yinping. "One
more chance!"
"Please," said Jocasta, pity in her eyes. "It's a
puppet show." With that she left the back room,
leaving a faint whiff of lavender.
Yinping dolefully packed away Wu, Xian, and Hong,
folding them up carefully into their case. He passed
back over the stage as he headed towards the doors
and was confronted by the rows of empty seats in
the darkened room. Tomorrow this place might be
used for a town meeting or a barn dance.
"Uncultured idiots," said Yinping to the empty room.
"Addle-pates! Ungrateful cattle!" He hauled his two
cases out of the hall and into the night.
The sign read "CONTRACT TOWN 39", with the seal
of the Guild of Mercantiles. Beneath the sign, some
enterprising soul had nailed a plank on which were
painted the words "BLASTED STUMP".
The town thus designated was clustered around
a square surrounded by clapboard buildings, each
with a story-high facade that was supposed to give
them the gravity of a town many times the size of
Blasted Stump. The effect was more apologetic than
grandiose. The bank, where Guild scrip was doled
out to the workers, stood beside a general store, a
barber's shop that doubled as a dentist's surgery,
and the undertaker's offices. The multipurpose
town hall stood at the short side of the square like
a patriarch at the head of an unappetizing feast.
 The rest of the town consisted of the houses of the
mining folk, most of them built by the inhabitants
with varying degrees of competence. The town's
saloon, Sally's, was a large and frowning three-
story building that squatted at the edge of town
as if exiled by the more genteel inhabitants. The
constant sound of raised voices and song informed
passers-by that Sally's was perhaps the only true
success story in Blasted Stump.
"Ah, but there can be high culture even in such a
place as this!" said Yinping.
Xian jumped to his feet on the stage. "Even for
people such as you!" said the puppet, its mouth
flapping in time with Yinping's high-pitched voice.
"You got jokes?" asked the woman.

The reason for the town's existence rose in grim,

frowning battlements to the north. The hills were "I got art!" replied Xian, with a pirouette. "I got the
disfigured with hundreds of black scars where beauty of drama and dance!"
holes had been dug or blasted to access the
seams of copper and iron inside. Heaving trails
of mine spoil reached out a quarter mile from the The woman grunted in reply and continued to her
largest mineheads, which were overlooked by pulley vegetable stall.
systems that lowered the miners into the lowest
shafts. Miners with pneumatic loading exoskeletons
Yinping began with a simple cycle of dancing and
stomped between the mounds of spoil carrying
swordfighting. Hong, the poorer dancer, would trip
hoppers of ore. A rusting, patched-up automaton the
up Xian during their routine, sparking an argument
size of a building assembled a new pulley tower over
that led to Hong drawing his spring-loaded sword.
a newly-blasted tunnel mouth. Sheds of blackened
Both bunraku would survive the subsequent fight
wood emitted palls of smoke from the smelting
and reconcile with another dance, and so the story
process, and a single platform gave access to the
would begin again.
railway line. There, the weekly cargo trains picked up
Blasted Stump's contribution to the Guild.
Once hooked, he would draw his audience into a
more involved tale. Then they would grow into a
Sometimes, perhaps once a week, one of the
large and rapt audience, and become loyal followers
miners would pull a glittering gemstone the size of
of Yinping's bunraku plays. That was the plan.
a fingernail from the strata beneath the hills. The
Guild tallymen who rode the train would log the
size, clarity, and color of the Soulstone and hand A pair of Three Kingdoms miners, on their way to
the miner a hefty bonus for his or her find. It was the seams in the hills, paused for a moment to
the tales of Soulstones coming from the hills that watch the two puppets dance. One had a prosthetic
brought new miners to Blasted Stump that, and arm powered by a miniature steam engine in the
the decades-long indentured labor contracts that shoulder and gestured at the puppets with his steel
bound them to the Guild until they dropped. hand. The other threw a coin at Yinping's feet.

Yinping set up his miniature stage near a fountain in
the town square. The market was in town, and local
farmers and craftspeople had set up their stalls in
the square, so Blasted Stump was as vibrant as it
ever got. Tradesmen cast odd looks at Yinping as he
took Hong and Xian from their case and strung them
to their control paddles.
"Hardly the Grand Opera," said a grubby woman
carrying a crate of equally grubby vegetables past
Yinping's spot.
It was good fortune, especially among those who
originated in Japan, to throw a coin to bunraku
performers. The coin, with the stylized head of the
Governor-General stamped on the obverse, was
the first hard cash Yinping had earned in Blasted
Stump. The two puppets halted in their performance
and bowed gravely at the two miners, who continued
on their way to their labors.

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 As the stallholders called out their wares and the sun It was a start. The girl liked him. She would tell her
passed by noon, a few souls paused to watch for a few friends, and they would tell theirs. That was how it
moments, but none were enthralled enough to form would begin, Yinping told himself. In this insignificant
the core of an appreciative crowd. It would take time, contract town, it would start.
Yinping told himself. He needed time. Two more Three
Kingdoms folk dropped money as they passed, each
time a single coin. As much for his own entertainment It would work, this time. It had to.
as anyone else's, Yinping began the prologue to the
Third Romance of the Emperors, with Xian and Hong
engaging in an animated debate over dividing the
kingdoms of ancient China between them.

Yinping realized he had an audience at last. It was

the little girl from the front row last night, wearing
what looked like the same red dress. She idly chewed
on the end of a braid as she watched Hong and Xian.
Yinping gave her a smile, but the girl seemed too
puzzled by what she saw on stage to return it.
"Weren't there three of them?" the girl asked.
The performance at the town hall had bought
the temporary use of a single room in a building
scarcely more substantial than the miner's shacks
that surrounded it. Due to a quirk of architecture,
Yinping's room had no windows, and so it was by
flickering candlelight that he laid the puppet case
and folded stage by the bed and struggled out of
his boots.

"Lady Wu is indisposed," said Hong. Yinping gave

him a voice slightly less squeaky than Xian's.
"She needs her beauty sleep!" added Xian. "Boy,
does she need it!"
"Silence!" barked Hong. "Try showing some
respect!"
"Try showing some appreciation for personal
hygiene," replied Xian. "I mean, yowsers!"
The girl cracked a smile at last. "You're funny," she
said to the two puppets.
"I'm funny," said Xian. "He's just funny-looking."
Yinping traveled light. While carrying the stage and
the puppet case, he had room for little more than
a change of clothes when he went from one town
to the next. He stripped off the costume in which
he performed a loose jacket and pants in deep,
shiny crimson, embroidered with dragons and lotus
flowers and sat down on the bed.
Something glittered metallically on the floor on
the other side of the bed. Yinping peered into the
gloom and saw Lady Wu lying there, on her back.
She wore her Empress costume of heavy robes and
flowing sleeves, with her bright red rosebud lips
standing out from her white face.
"There you are," said Yinping quietly. "Why must you
run away? Can't you see I'm..."

Lady Wu was lying on a pile of cables. They were

"Dorothy!" called out a lady who was buying pots and
heaped in greasy coils on the floor.
pans from one of the stalls. Like her daughter, she
had honey-colored hair tied back in braids. "Don't you
talk to that man! He's just after money. Come on."
They must have been cables from the mine works,
perhaps spares from the pulley towers that hauled
up hoppers full of ore from the lower seams.
The girl dutifully trotted off to join her mother. Xian
waved a sorrowful goodbye to the back of her head.

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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 "Why, Lady Wu?" asked Yinping, his shoulders
sagging as he deflated. "Haven't I tried? Can't you
see how hard I work?" He threw open the puppet
case, revealing Hong and Xian nestled in their
indentations. "And you encourage her!" he snapped.
"I took you out today, I found you an audience, I..."
Yinping paused and calmed himself. "I'm sorry. I
just... I just try, that is all." He gently picked up Lady
Wu and placed her in the case between the other
puppets. "It will be better," he said. "I promise you
that. Please just trust me. That is all I ask. Just a
little longer, please."
The puppets just stared up at him. Hong's eyebrows
were angled down, giving him an angry, disapproving
expression. Xian seemed to smirk.
"I've been learning the Tale of the Star-Beast," said
Yinping, forcing a smile. "Do you remember the
peddler in that last town? He had a book of the old
tales. The House of Noisy Ghosts! The Day of the
Shambling Corpse-Men! Would you like that?"
Yinping got no reply. Eventually he closed the case
and sat on the bed, staring at the wall as the candle
burned down.
"I wish I'd never killed that guy," he said to himself.
With the market closed for the day, there were no
passers-by in the town square to make it worth
setting up the stage there. The town was quiet
save for the occasional reports of dynamite blasting
echoing down from the hills. The train would not be
coming through for the better part of a week. Blasted
Stump was dour and dead, silently baking in the
remorseless sun.
Dead, save for one place. Sally's Saloon never
closed. The round-the-clock mining shifts provided
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
a stream of prospectors trudging back from the
hills, dehydrated after a long shift and looking to
replace a day's lost sweat with several pints of
weak beer.
Yinping let hope kindle inside him as he lugged
the puppet case and miniature stage towards the
saloon. As he approached, he could hear raised
voices and the plonking of a raucous piano. A few
horses were tied up at the water trough outside the
saloon, and two dogs chased one another in the
street, looking for scraps.
These people would watch, he told himself. These
people were desperate for entertainment. Not the
refined theater of bunraku, perhaps, but Yinping
could be flexible. Even the call of high art could take
a step back when there was an audience baying for
something different.
Yinping stopped at the saloon doors. He took a
deep breath and readied himself to perform.
"You chuck your jerky in my back room one more
time, Hank," said Sally, "I'm gonna cut you off.
Serious, this time. Now mop it up."
Hank, the object of her current scorn, meekly took
the proffered mop and skulked off to the room at
the back that the regulars used for card games.
He had the bent shoulders and pale tautness of
a lifelong miner. Sally, on the other hand, was a
red boulder of a woman with her face colored by
broken blood vessels. Her heft made her difficult
to move, especially once she was installed behind
the bar of her establishment, which was a major
advantage in her vocation. She glared at the
patrons chortling at Hank's misfortune, before
she noticed Yinping entering.
"What can I get you?" she asked, which was as
friendly as she got.
 Yinping dragged his cases up to the bar. The place
was almost full, with dozens of miners having just
come off a shift at one of the biggest copper mines.
They were grubby, gray-faced folk intent on downing
their beer as efficiently as possible. Yinping saw
some Asian faces among them, who might well
be familiar with bunraku theater from their own
childhoods on the other side of the Breach.
"I'm new in town," said Yinping. "Just put on a show
at the hall."
"Beautiful story," said Sally. "Beer or whiskey?"
"You want me to perform?"
Sally raised an eyebrow. "Perform? We got Eight-
Fingers Willy on the piano right now, good luck
movin' him." She gave a jowly nod towards the
gray-whiskered man bent over the saloon's
upright piano. His playing was enthusiastically
percussive, though not closely related to any
recognizable tune.
"Oh, no," said Yinping. "I have a puppet show."
Sally laughed and slapped the bar. "Well, damn,
son, you see any eight-year-olds in here?"
"Bunraku theater is a tradition hundreds of years
old!"
"Sure it is. So's playing jump-rope."
"I am sure your patrons will enjoy it."
Sally cast a doubtful eye across the host of miners
swilling down her beer. "These guys?"
"It is an ancient art most hilarious and well-beloved."
"Yeah? You expect payin'?"
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Yinping shook his head. "Just what your patrons are
willing to grant me in gratitude."
"Well darn, I guess you're welcome to try. Anything
that cheers these up these miserable assholes."
"Shove it, Sally," said one miner, a shaved bear of a
man with a hydraulic pincer for a hand.
"Love you too, Butch," said Sally.
"I have your permission?" asked Yinping.
Sally shrugged. "Whatever, be my guest."
Yinping found an unoccupied table by the back of
the room and set up his stage. He took Xian out of
the case and strung him to the control paddle before
lowering him onto the stage.
"What in the hell is this fella doing?" asked a miner
with pockmarked acid stains on his face and hands, a
legacy of working with the chemicals used to process
the miners' ore. "You gonna give us a little song and
dance, little man?"
"Put a bag on your head, buddy, and I'll give you
whatever you want!" squeaked Xian.
Pockmark scowled and began to rise from his
chair. The other miners at his table, a mix of skinny,
malnourished-looking men, laughed at him and
pulled him back into his seat.
Yinping swallowed. The words had leaped out of
his throat. His mouth was suddenly dry. A shudder
went through him, and he had the awful, too-familiar
feeling of his hands working without any input from
his conscious mind.
"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, from the mysterious
Realms of the Three Kingdoms," announced Xian
squeakily, 'The one and only Bunraku Extravaganza!
Which one of you good folks wants to start the
 show? You, with the grazes on your knuckles! Or
you, with a face only a mother could abandon!'
"Pretty funny," said Butch, the huge miner who had
sidled up to Yinping's table. "But I ain't sure you
picked the right saloon."
"Well bless my soul, sir, is there a face up there
somewhere?" prodded Xian. "How long has it been
since you saw your twelve toes? Yeah, you got the
look all right. This town, four hundred people and six
last names, am I right?"
"Keep goin'," said Butch, opening and closing his
pincer hand. "I reckon I could pop you real good,
like a pimple."
Suddenly Yinping was swinging Hong onto the
stage. "You wish to fight me?" demanded Hong,
his red face fierce. "My kung fu has twelve animal
styles! Twelve! What man dares to face the Way of
the Goldfish?" Hong fell to the stage and flopped
around comically.
Some of the miners laughed. Butch backed off a
little, but he still stood, glowering.
"Ha! No one dares face my mighty blade!" Hong
hopped to his feet, and the spring-loaded blade
snapped out of his forearm into his hand.
"And now," announced Xian grandly, "Her Majesty,
the Empress Wu!"
Yinping's hands were flying across the top of the
stage to operate all three puppets now on stage. It
was an intricate art, and every performance needed
long hours of practice before even basic movements
appeared natural. Yinping's hands moved of their
own accord, and sweat broke out on his face as
muscle memory moved his dexterous fingers too
quickly for an onlooker to follow.
Empress Wu made her entrance, sweeping her
skirts dramatically around her. "Well, well, what have
we here?" came the imperious voice from Yinping's
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
throat. "Such an assembly of men! Such virility! But
do you just put on a good show, gentlemen, or is
there something under those britches after all?"
"More than you," shouted one of the miners at
Yinping.
"My father brought me to bunraku when I was a
child," came a voice from in front of the stage.
The speaker used English, but Yinping recognized
the Japanese accent to it. He looked up to see
one of the Asian miners looking down at the stage
with scorn. "That was beautiful. This... this is a
disgrace."
"What is a disgrace," said Xian, "is you blowing
your wife's dowry by betting on a dogfight!"
The Japanese miner's face hardened and he
backed off, shaken.
"When she finds out he'd better keep his legs
crossed!" the puppet cackled.
"Damn," murmured Pockmark, quick to take
advantage of his Japanese colleague's discomfort.
"Never knew you liked a good bet, Hiro. Guess you
don't no more!"
"And what about that Kitty girl who came through
here a while back," continued Xian to Pockmark.
"Anyone remember her? Disappeared real quick?
Well crater-face here is the reason!"
Pockmark sprang to his feet again. "What the hell
do you know about that?"
"Why, my dear, you can't keep a secret in this
town!" said Wu. "Mr. Truong back there has a
predilection for opium he can't quite keep under
hit hat! And Mr. Duquesne can't help but squirrel
away a few nuggets from that gold seam he and his
buddies won't tell anyone about! There isn't a soul
who doesn't have some scandalous little tidbit!"
 "You keep on like that," said another miner, a stocky,
furious-faced man sporting a grand black mustache,
"and you're liable to be getting' yer throat slit."
"Now, Mr. O'Shaugnessy," said Xian, "going by how
you shot that fella down by Cavendish Creek, it's not
my neck I'm worried about!" The puppet raised its
hand and jerked its head to the side in imitation of
a man being hanged.
The sound of metal on wood was so loud that it
stopped the growing furor instantly. Sally had
slammed the head of a fearsome lump hammer
onto the table, jarring the stage almost onto the
floor.
"Show's over!" she shouted. "Sit yer pickled asses
back down before I start crackin' heads!"
The patrons backed off slowly. None of them were
as tough as Sally, not when she brought her faithful
hammer out from its place behind the bar.
"And you," she said, turning to Yinping, "I'm gonna
do you the solid of lettin' you walk on out of here
with both knees attached. I don't know what you
hoped to achieve by rilin' these folks up, but if you
try it again, they won't be talked down, even by me.
You understand? Now get!"
Yinping felt the volition returning to his hands. He
couldn't speak his tongue, swollen and sticky,
would not let him speak. He grabbed his stage and
hefted its weight, with the puppets still inside, and
hurried for the door.
"Can't you see I'm trying?" said Yinping. "They're
simple folk here. They don't care a damn for high
art! I just can't find you an audience here. After all
this time, can't you see that?"
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
The puppets lay tangled up in their strings on the
half-collapsed stage. Yinping sat on his bed in the
boarding-house, imploring the puppets, his eyes
rimmed bright with tears. "I know you're bored, but
those men would have killed me! Where would you
be then, with no puppetmaster?" He put his head in
his hands. "I tried to throw you away, but you kept
coming back to me. I tried to destroy you, but you
wouldn't burn. What do you want from me?"
The puppets didn't reply.
"Of course I know what you want! But I can't give it
to you. I can't give you an audience every night. They
just don't exist out here." Yinping sighed and began
to pull off his boots again. "We'll move on in the
morning," he said. "There are new towns founded
out here every day. We'll find someplace where they
appreciate you, I promise. Just... just be patient.
Please. I promise we'll..."
With his eyes lowered, Yinping didnt notice the
figure creeping up behind him or the rock swinging
down at the back of his head. He felt it, though, and
then for a long time, he didn't feel anything else.
In the place between unconsciousness and waking,
Yinping saw the face of the man he had killed. It had
been back in a town called Whiskey Falls, a place
growing too fast for its sheriff to keep up, where a
hustler like Yinping could find pickings among the
green newcomers. He'd cornered his victim in an
alleyway and drawn his knife.
The man had been Japanese. The two didn't share a
language. They didn't have to. The man had held up
his hands as if to beg, and then, as Yinping checked
behind him to make sure no one was watching, the
old guy had made a break for it. He was too slow
to get far, especially with the heavy case strapped
to his back, and Yinping's knife had sunk so easily
between his ribs it seemed the old man wasn't
there at all.
 Yinping had grabbed the case and run. When he
was far enough away, he opened the case to see
the three bunraku staring up at him. Back then, he
hadn't known anything about them, except that they
looked valuable.
No one had wanted to buy them. And then things
had started happening, things he didn't understand.
Things that meant he had to skip out of whatever
town he was in even faster than normal. Whenever
he had tried to abandon the puppets, he found them
waiting for him when he woke, sitting lined up in
their case.
He tried to give them what they wanted. He tried to
make them happy. But it never worked...
Yinping's eyes flicked open. The back of his head
throbbed. He had been laid out on the floor of his
flop house room. With a sudden rush of panic, he
jumped to his feet to see the puppet stage standing
where he had left it.
It was empty.
Yinping bolted out of the room and into the street. It
was the middle of the night, and the town was empty
save for one of the ever-present stray dogs trotting
down the dirt track.
In its mouth was a white scrap of meat that looked,
in the moonlight, a lot like a pair of human fingers.
"No," hissed Yinping. "No, no no..."
He knew where he had to go. The town hall was
the closest thing to a proper theater Blasted Stump
had. Yinping ran all the way to the square, with only
a couple of wandering drunks casting him confused
glances. Lights burned in the windows of the town
16
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
hall, and Yinping hurried nervously up to the main
doors. They stood ajar, and he put a hand against
them to push them open.
His hand touched something sticky and warm and
came away red. Yinping's stomach was bunched up
in his body, as if it was trying to force its way up
through his throat. The panic rose like bile.
He opened the door. He knew what he would see, in
spirit if not the details, but even so, it hit him like a
punch in the face.
Two figures stood on the stage at the far end of
the hall, illuminated by lanterns in the rafters. One
was Jocasta MacClaine. Her head hung to one side,
cheek against her shoulder, opening up the huge red
wound like a second hungry mouth. Her throat had
been almost completely severed, and the vertebrae
stood out whitely against the dark red gore. She
wore her schoolmarmly dress with its hooped skirt,
stained black down the front with blood.
The other was Butch, the enormous miner from the
saloon. His stomach was opened from sternum
to navel, and red-black guts hung around like a
glistening loincloth. Tiny cuts covered his muscular
arm. The hydraulic piping of his other arm, the one
with the pincer hand, had been cut, and it was
supported only by the cabling that held him upright.
The two corpses were supported by lengths of the
cables Lady Wu had stolen. Yinping's gaze ran up
them to the rafters above the stage. There, in the
shadows, crouched the three bunraku puppets.
"Now, you listen here, Jocasta," said Butch. "I hear
you been carryin' on with that moon-faced son of
a varmint." The voice came from Yinping's throat,
and he almost choked as he forced his voice into
a low growl. He couldn't control the voice he gave
the corpse-puppet on stage, just as he had not
been able to silence the bunraku as they baited the
patrons of Sally's Saloon.
Hong pulled on the cables looped over the rafters,
and Butch raised his bloody arm to wag his finger
as if admonishing Jocasta's corpse. Another cable
 made Butch's mouth flap open and closed as he
spoke.
"Please, Butch," replied Jocasta in a high squeal,
"don't be angry! I love him!" Lady Wu controlled
Jocasta and had her raise her hands to her face in
dismay.
"Why, you malodorous Jezebel!" roared Butch. "I'll
take care of you and him both!"
Jocasta cried out in fright, and the high shriek tore
at Yinping's throat.
Xian hauled on a bundle of cables, and from the
wings lumbered Pockmark from the saloon. His
ravaged face was half-ruined by an enormous wound
on the side of his head where his skull was caved in,
as if a huge weight had been dropped on him. One
of his legs was almost severed and dangled among
the scraps of his shredded britches by a strip of
skin. He loped onto the stage as Xian controlled him
and held up both hands in shock.
"Jocasta!" cried Pockmark in a slack-jawed drawl.
"Butch! I didn't think you'd be here!"
"Don't you pretend there ain't been nothin' goin'
on between you and my little hummin'bird!" retorted
Butch. He raised his good arm, and Yinping saw an
axe had been tied to his hand a hand with two
missing fingers. Butch brandished the axe angrily.
"No, Butch!" cried Pockmark. "Me an' Jocasta, our
love is pure! Don't destroy such a beautiful, perfect
thing!"
"I'll destroy you both, you yeller-bellied snake!"
Butch ran at Pockmark, who fled, and the two of
them gamboled around the stage as Butch's axe
rose and fell mechanically. Blood from the two men's
wounds scattered across the seats in the front row
as Jocasta's body span around, wailing in despair.
The axe hacked down at Pockmark's shoulder.
Pockmark's left arm came away in a spray of gore
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
it had been severed and then stitched back onto the
shoulder, to come away easily as the performance
demanded. Jocasta howled and whirled as
Pockmark's blood sprayed across her.
"No!" screamed Jocasta. "My hideous love!"
Lady Wu pulled on Jocasta's cables. Jocasta lurched
into the middle of the stage to interpose herself
between Butch and Pockmark. Butch's axe rose
again and fell, burying its blade in Jocasta's chest.
Cackling with laughter that came from Yinpings lips,
Lady Wu pulled on another cable. With a ripping
sound, Jocasta's lower half came away, and the
contents of her torso emptied themselves onto the
stage, gore spraying out as her upper half swung
around in a bloody circle. The two men whirled as
well, yelling and screaming in a terrible cacophony
as Jocasta's organs spattered onto the stage and
lengths of gut thwacked into the front row.Blood
sprayed, so much blood, a storm of it...
"Stop!" screamed Yinping. He had finally forced his
own words out of his mouth.
The bunraku stopped working their corpse-puppets.
Jocasta MacClaine swung to a halt, still dribbling
blood from her severed trunk. All three bodies hung
limp and inert.
"Don't be angry," said Lady Wu.
"You knew what would happen," said Hong.
"What happens when we get bored!" said Xian.
Yinping had tried to keep them entertained, but
the only thing that kept them entertained was
performing in front of an audience, and they were so
hard to come by out here.
"You don't have to do this," said Yinping. He
slumped in to one of the empty chairs. "I learned
how to use you. I practiced hard! I can perform
 the whole Romance of the Seven Kingdoms and a
hundred stories besides! Isn't that enough?"
"It's not the same without an audience," whined
Lady Wu.
"We tried to have some fun in the saloon," Xian
reminded him. "We went out every night and listened
to their secrets so we could put on a performance
they would remember. But you took us away just
when it was getting good!"
"So we have to make our own entertainment," Hong
finished.
"I'm not... I'm not angry," said Yinping. "But this
has to stop. I can't keep running, Someone's going
to catch up with us. They're going to hunt me down,
send a posse..."
"We'll stop," said Lady Wu, her words forcing his
own from his mouth. "Just as soon as you give us
what we want."
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Yinping put his head in his hands and wept.
He knew he never could. He had learned to work the
bunraku with considerable skill, but he'd never get
the grand opera house audience they craved, never
put them before the appreciative audience for which
they were created.
He'd leave Blasted Stump and find another town
where he could find a regular place in a music hall
or saloon house stage where an audience would sit
enraptured by his tales. But he knew that he would
fail. He would have to run from there, too, and again,
and again, leaving more blood-spattered horrors in
his wake whenever the bunraku puppets got bored.
And it would never end.
Not while they still pulled the strings.
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 Praise The Oyabun
Mario Martino

Intro
Wyrdos! First and foremost, thank the Oyabun
for giving me the opportunity to take care of our
magnificent Shadow Emissary. I will try to keep
this as informative and as efficient as possible, as
the Oyabun hates people that waste time. I have
organized this article into a number of ordered
steps for your convenience.

Preparations

1. Mind the gaps! There are several gaps on this

model that should be noted. One prominent one is
the belly gap, as if it is not treated properly, it will be
the first thing anyone will notice. Usually I fill gaps
with either Green Stuff or Milliput (epoxy), but this
time I used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement then started
sanding and trimming the gaps down.
2. Watch out for those mold lines and uneven
surfaces after assembly! Like gaps, they will stand
out after you put down some paint (and most of the
time, you will realize these problems after you prime
them). I trim them down with a hobby knife or a high
grit sand paper and make sure the model is smooth
to the touch.

3. Once assembly is done, use a make-up brush

(these can easily be found at dollar stores) to clean
off the debris and small dust particles that might
mess up the surface. You are now ready to paint!

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 Painting
3. Time to have some fun with Zenithal painting! As
I mentioned, the scales are going to be light blue
Note: We are using some variations of yellows here, as the final tone. At a roughly 45 degrees angle, I
which are generally the most transparent color to sprayedP3 Cygnar Blue Base, making sure tohit the
work with, so DO NOT expect full coverage of an scales while avoiding the underbelly area. Zenithal
area with a single stroke. On the bright side, yellow painting allowed me to hit the areas I want by giving
is the easiest color to blend. it a light blue highlight over the darker blue shadows.
In short, the dark shadows stay dark while I build up
the highlights to the lightest color I want.
1. Prime time! I wanted to paint the Shadow Emissary
in a brighter tone, so I primed him white. Some
people like to have the dusty look when priming,
but I usually go full coverage. Once everything is
primed, it's time to do some color blocking with the
airbrush.

4. AddP3 Meredius Blueas the second highlight for

the scale. I used Zenithal painting once again, but
this time, I hit them all around at a higher angle than
45 degrees (I usually go about 75 degrees from the
X axis or about 15 degrees out from the Y axis).

2. I used P3 Coal Black to color block all around.

The upper body (scales) will have a light blue tone
as the end result and dark gray for the underbelly.

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 8. I then repeated the process with a lighter gray,P3
Ironhull Grey,but in smaller sections. This process
further highlighted the areas that a light source
would hit.

5. I then added pure white (Vallejo Game Color

White) on a 1:1 ratio to the blue from step #4 and
sprayed in areas where I thought a light source
would hit to give it a final highlight.

6. I gave the underbelly another coat of P3 Coal

Black, because I was sure there would be some
spots of lighter colors here and there. This will act
as the shadows color for the underbelly.
7. I used a 1:1 mix ofP3 Ironhull GreyandP3 Coal
Blackfor the underbelly. This time I just highlighted
the area that a light source would hit.
9. We are done with color blocking! Final detailed
highlights of the underbelly and the scales will
continue later. Now lets get on with the tiny details
(face, eyes, whiskers, horns, arm and tail hair, spikes
on the upper body, and claws) with an actual brush!

Lets start with the whiskers and apply this same

method and same colors while painting the rest of
these parts (minus the eyes). The four colors I used
for this part areP3 Khador Red Highlight, P3 Hellfire,
P3 Cygnus Yellow, andVallejo Game Color White.

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 10. Base the whiskers from tip to base with P3 12. Apply this method to all the areas mentioned
Khador Red Highlightand make sure you get a good in part 5, save for the eyes. Start with orange, then
coverage. No blue color should be showing! Wait for yellow orange, then yellow, and finally white.
it to dry and, once thats done, get ready to blend.

13. For the eyes, I used a 3:1 ratio ofP3 Underbelly

Blue vs Vallejo Game Color White to get the light
blue for the base color of the retina, then Vallejo
Game Color Whitefor the iris (semi-circle shape). I
finished it off withP3 Coal Blackin an I shape for
the center part of the iris.

11. Rebase the whiskers with P3 Khador Red

Highlight, and then, while its still wet, add on P3
Hellfire from halfway to the tip. While that is still
wet, addP3 Cygnus Yellowfrom a quarter of the way
down to the tip. Repeat this process from an eighth 14. While working on the eyes, I also used the 3:1
of the way down to the tip withVallejo Game Color ratio from step 13 to highlight parts of the nose and
White. Overall, youre trying to create a gradient eye cavity. These are easily recognizable with the
from orange to white. lines on the model.

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 15. Time to move on to the scales! There are two
ways to do this step. The first is to drybrush, which
is easier but may not look as intricate when it is
finished. The other way is to highlight every single
scale with your brush, which is what I opted for.
I used a mix of Vallejo Game Color White and P3
Meredius Blueon a 1:4 ratio, so it was slightly off
white with a light blue tint to it. This process is
simple but tedious, and some areas can be hard to
reach. If you go this route, you will want to highlight
the edges of all of the scales - yes, every one of
them - with this very light blue color.
16. Once the scales are done, it is time for you to
work on the final part of this magnificent beast: the
underbelly! Mix a 2:1 ratio ofP3 Coal BlackandP3
Ironhull Grey, then mix it with a little bit of extra water
(you want this paint to be somewhat transparent).
Remember that this is just the first highlight for the
underbelly! Look for the ridges that run horizontally
on the underbelly parts, then quickly draw lines
going through them.
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17. Add one more layer of highlight to the
underbelly. You will need a mix of 1:1 ratio of P3
Coal Black and P3 Ironhull Grey, then mix it with
a little bit of extra water (you want this somewhat
transparent). Once again, use the same process,
but this time paint only those parts that you think
a light source would hit. When this is done, you are
finished with the model! Pat yourself on the back!
Basing
1. I chose something simple for this model's
basing, because I didnt want the base to attract
more attention than the model itself. I used tree
bark that you can buy at Home Depot or Lowes and
stacked it from smallest piece to largest to support
the weight and width of the Shadow Emissary. Make
sure you run a pin from top to bottom, all the way to
the center of the base.
 2. Prime the base all black (I usedBadger Stynylrez
black primerfor this). Good coverage is needed for
basing.

3. Zenithal paint at a 45 degree angle using P3

Battlefield Brown for the first basecoat, and be
really loose about it. Follow it up withP3 Bootstrap
Leatherat 15 degrees from the vertical axis for the
first highlight. Lastly,put P3 Beast Hidein different
spots just to give it a different color (nature is not
exact, so it is always good to randomize the colors).
The final step to this is to drybrush P3 Rucksack
Tanas the final highlight for the base.

4. Pin the Shadow Emissary to the top of the base,

and then add some foliage around the foot to add
a little bit of diversity. I usually follow the rule of
threes: have three items of the same type to look
at from different points of view, in this case frontal
view, side view, and top view. You are now done!

25
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 Chain Gang
This heat is killing me.
Luke wiped his brow, shading his eyes from the
noon-day sun. I thought Breachside was colder
than home.
I brought my pick-axe down into the dry, burned
orange soil of the Badlands. You start whining now,
youll be doing nothing but til we're little more than
bleached bones in the sun.
The tall, black convict gestured at me. This is
all about endurance, kid. You gotta build some
callouses on your hands and your mind.
Whats that supposed to mean? Luke asked.
It means get used to it, crybaby, another convict
said in a heavy French accent.
My gaze wandered over the ten of us, all convicts,
dressed in faded green coveralls caked with dust.
Deep tans covered our arms, faces, and necks.
There was a leathery look to most of us, save for
Luke. At barely eighteen, the kid was the youngest
convict Id seen in a chain-gang, freckled and blonde.
His momma was probably still crying over whatever
hed done.
26
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Mike Wallace
Look at Richter, he knows how it is, the tall, black
convict said.
I looked further down the line at Richter, the other
new member of the gang. He was almost Lukes polar
opposite; grizzled and leathery, older than any of us.
He was smiling, eyes twinkling with good humor.
Its all in the mind, Richter said. Just think about
the cool Badlands ahead, and perhaps the amusing
garments Herr Gregor may be wearing under that
coat.
I winced and ducked my head on reflex.
Shut yer teeth, Kurtis, Richters overweight chain-
mate, uttered.
Alright, I said. Maybe Richter is a bad example.
Too much sunll turn you loopy.
Richter laughed at that, a big belly-laugh. Loopy as
a snake!
Hey! Came a shout from a nearby tree. It was the
only one to be seen in this empty vastness, dead
and bleached white as bone. Our warden, Gregor,
 stood under it. He was taller than me, head and I frowned. Yeah, I get it.
shoulders above the rest of the crew, with a big
black beard and a wild-eyed look. He took a long
swig from a canteen and patted the whip coiled He backhanded me with the pistol. Then back to
around his belt. work! Growling in his native Russian, he went back
to his tent. Red and Blue watched us for a moment,
then shrugged and went back to loitering.
Richter waved. Hey, how about some of that water
for us?
I offered a hand to Richer while I rubbed my jaw.
You alright?
Get back to work, convict!

Richter took my hand. A nasty bruise was forming

Whiskey then? I see you brought a few bottles. over his eye. Thanks. Youre a gentleman amongst
convicts. He breathed in deep and flashed me a
bloody smile. I love it here, dont you?
Shut up, Rick! Kurtis pleaded.

I exchanged glances with Luke, Conner and Philip,

Gregor started towards us. As if on cue, his two then we went back to work without another word.
guardsmen - men I called Red and Blue because
of the color of their hair and coat, respectively - fell
into step behind him, rifles in hand. The wizened old
man smiled up at them.

Shade? Much obliged!

Pow. Richter hit the dirt hard.

Listen here, scum. You belong to the Guild now.

You belong to me. I say work, work. I say die, die.
I say shut your mouth? You shut - your - stupid -
mouth! Gregor stomped Richter with each word.

I cursed under my breath. Boss! I called. Cmon,

hes old.

Gregor turned my way. He couldnt quite loom over

me like he could Richter, but he managed. You want
some too, boy?

You break him and he cant work. We all slow down.

He drew his pistol and pressed it to my temple.

I kill you now, it's one less mouth to feed until
replacements come. The others have to work harder,
but it's no skin off my teeth. You get it?

27
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

The day went on. We broke the earth of the Badlands
and lined it with heavy wood planks for the iron rails
to come. The foreman - a short British man named
Carrows - came out of his tent every now and again
to take measurements and scan the horizon with
his landscaping tools.
A chill wind came down from the north in the late
afternoon, and we all seemed to sway with relief.
The rest of the shift went quicker without the heat
on our backs, and before long, the sun had set and
Red whistled through his fingers.
Thats enough! Picks down!
We piled our tools neatly and shuffled into our tent,
an old barracks-style army canvas. There were
cots lined up for us, and I sank into mine, reaching
underneath for my bowl.
Philip, in the cot nearest to mine and Lukes, let
out an expletive in French, flicking his bowl to send
some kind of beetle or roach scurrying away from
him.
Shouldve kept it, Conner grinned. Hed probably
taste better than dinner.
On cue, Red and Blue entered the tent carrying a
heavy pot between them. Bowls up!
They went up and down the cots, slopping pale, gray
gruel into our waiting bowls. They stopped when they
reached Richter, who was humming some German
marching song to himself.
Boss says you dont get no share, Red said. You
gotta learn yer place.
Richter sat up. I wouldnt eat that swill, but if youre
inviting me to eat at the wardens table, Id be happy
to join him.
28
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Blue slugged him, knocking him out of his cot. Boss
said to do that if you got any lip left.
Richters smile took on a cruel look. What good
little puppies you must be. Do you sleep at the foot
of his bed, too?
Red looked at Blue. You know, I think he deserves
his share after all. What you thinkin?
Blue nodded. He hefted up the pot and slopped
its contents over Richters bald head and down his
coveralls.
That ought to tide you over, Red said. Bon
appetite.
Kurtis laughed. Grinning like a child, he ate his
dinner, stifling laughter.
As the guards left, Richter stared at the mess
gathering on his lap, shrugged, and laid down, not
even bothering to try and wipe it away.
After an awkward minute or two, the rest of us
started to eat, save for Luke, who looked nauseous.
Eat it, I said. You wont get anythin better.
He tried to smile. It aint exactly mas biscuits and
gravy.
I think it tastes a bit like library paste, Philip said.
Just do as I do, Conner said. He tipped back the
bowl and swallowed it down as fast as he good.
There, see? Done.
Luke sipped his and winced, then held his breath
and gulped.
Just like the army used to make, I said.
 The army fed you this? Luke asked.
Nah, we used it to seal gas masks, I said.
The four of us chuckled. Looking a little better, Luke
started to eat.
Red and Blue returned, this time with a big clay
jug. Bowls up! Red commanded, and Blue began
pouring water into them.
Finish up quick, I told Luke, who started choking
down his dinner. He finished just in time for the
water. They filled up everyones bowl except Richter,
but the old man seemed to have finally gotten the
message.
Lights out, convicts! Red called, and he doused
the single lantern hanging from the ceiling.
Rich, you need some water? I asked. My throat
protested, but I ignored it.
Richter shuffled in his cot. Youre too kind. No
thank you, Harry.
Luke sniffed the water. Think they piss in it?
Probably is piss, Conner said. Cheers.
When Id drank mine down I laid down on the cot.
The tent was comfortably quiet, almost serene.
Then the smell, heavy and rich, of bubbling stew
wafted in from our wardens campfire. Dried meat,
peas and onions, cooking away in water and spices.
My stomach suddenly realized how unappetizing
gruel was and started to churn, almost like it was
trying to claw its way out. Philip rolled away from the
smell and covered his head with his hands.
That just aint fair, Luke whispered.
29
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Richter began to hum, that same relentless marching
tune. The man had to be sunbaked. I didnt give him
another week on the line.
I closed my eyes and let exhaustion take me.
Kurtis scream woke me.
I sat up, pulled out of restless dreams. The sun
hadnt risen yet; all I could make out were shadows
moving about as the other gangers were roused
from sleep.
The hell is going on? Conner barked.
Kurtis continued to scream. Id heard it before in the
war, the scream of men trying to comprehend their
own missing limbs and spilling guts.
Gregor pulled the tent open, lantern in one hand
and pistol in the other. What in the bowels of hell
is going on? He roared. His eyes bulged as the light
fell over Kurtis, revealing the blood that covered
his torso and face. Richter was gone, leaving more
blood pooling in his cot.
Boss, whats goin on? Red asked, pushing his
way into the tent, followed by Blue. Holy...!
Grab im! Gregor snapped.
The guardsmen jumped to, hooking their arms under
Kurtis and pulling him up. The man continued to
squeal, so Gregor slugged him in the face, stunning
him into silence.
Get him out!
What the hell is going on? Luke asked. Is he
bleeding?
 Cmon, I said.
The entire chain gang followed Gregor outside,
watching the guardsmen set Kurtis on his knees.
Gregor grabbed him by his bloody collar. Where is
he? Whered he run to?
I dont know! Kurtis said. I - I didnt do it!
What is going on? Carrows asked. He approached
from his tent, having taken the time to arm himself
with an officers pistol.
Gregor shook Kurtis. This rotten convict helped his
mate escape! Or he killed him!
I didnt, I swear! Kurtis pleaded.
Look at him! I said. Hes scared to hell! He didnt
do anything!
Yeah, lay off! Conner said. A few more convicts
voiced their agreement.
Shut it, all of you! Gregor said. He aimed his
revolver at Kurtis forehead. You have ten seconds
to tell where he is. Ten!
I swear! Kurtis cried. I swear to God and my
momma, I didnt do anything! I woke up and he was
gone and my clothes were wet and when I realized
what it was I - I didnt kill him!
Seconds ticked by as Gregor thought it over, staring
at each of us. Then by the power invested in me by
the Guild, I sentence you to hang until dead.
Kurtis face went pale. He slumped down onto his
knees, staring at the ground.
You cant! Conner cried out. He aint did anything
wrong!
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Carrows cleared his throat. Sergeant, this will not
get us answers.
Shut it! Gregor said. He killed his mate, or he
helped him escape! Thats all there is to it! I wont
have any breaks on my watch!
Blue went to his tent and came back with rope in
hand. The tree, boss?
Gregor nodded and dug into his coat for a pale
crystal that he pushed into Reds hand. The two
guardsmen dragged Kurtis towards the tree, and he
did nothing to fight back. Gregor trained his pistol on
the rest of us, eyes blazing.
The first man who speaks out of line gets a bullet
in the skull, he said.
We held our ground and our tongues. When they
were done, Red returned and handed the stone
back to Gregor. It was now glowing vibrantly.
Get to work, Gregor said to us. He marched back
into his tent with the stone. Carrows frowned, shook
his head, and withdrew as well.
You heard him! Red said. Get to it, scum!
Numbly, we marched to our picks. For a moment I
fantasized about burying the sharp end in Gregors
face. Then I started to work.
None of us looked back at the tree.
We didnt speak, any of us, until after Red had
handed out our water ration for the evening and put
out the lantern. Richters cot had been hauled out,
but his blood was still staining the ground.
30
 When the guardsmen were off to their dinner, I sat
up in the dark. Aint right what happened.
Philip nodded. What do you think happened?
Maybe Richter tried to break for it? Bled himself to
grease the chain? Conner asked
If Kurtis killed him, why hide the body and not try to
run? Philip asked.
We all know Kurtis didnt do it, I said. The two
nodded.
What about that stone? Luke asked. That was
weird.
Soulstone, I said. And that aint weird. Guildll
probably give Gregor a bonus for keeping one close
while they did Kurt in.
Luke went pale. You mean, the stone sucks out
yer...?
Dont know, I said. Death seems to fill those
stones up. Makes em work. Why do you think were
digging this rail? For gold? There's some Soulstone
mine down here, and the Guild wants to bleed it dry
with our sweat and blood. You think they care about
our souls after all that?
More to the point, Philip said. Two of us are now
dead. Someone is to blame.
Gregor, Conner said. That bastard was droolin
to kill Kurt.
Why?
Maybe Kurt knows something, I said. Maybe
Gregor came in here and offed Richter himself.
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Gregor doesnt seem the type to kill quiet, Conner
said.
Luke shivered. So what now?
Sleep, I said. Either way we look at it, someone
got away with murder.
We shouldnt leave out the possibility that it was
not anyone in this camp, Philip said. We are, after
all, in Malifaux.
You mean something came in here and took him?
Luke hissed.
Hey in there! Red hollered. I said lights out!
I laid down in my cot. Maybe something did, I told
Luke. Maybe we best keep our eyes open.
I tried to keep awake as long as I could, but eventually
exhaustion won over.
Dawn came without incident, though. The day
passed, and then another. After a week, it was like
the incident was a distant memory. We moved our
camp further along the Badlands, laid down more
rail, and put Kurtis body - still swaying under that
lonely tree - as far away from us as we could.
A week after Kurtis death, Gregor cornered us
outside our tent. Inspection! Line up!
Confused, the eight of us formed a line. Blue started
to pat us down while Red covered us with his rifle.
Whats going on? Philip asked.
They ignored us until Blue was finished. He shook
his head at Gregor.
31
 The Russian growled. Last night, one of you
convicts stole from my tent! I want to know which
of you did it! Fess up now, or youll all get the whip!
No one left the tent, Philip started.
You have five seconds, Gregor said. He flicked the
whip, loosening it up, then gave it a crack over our
heads. Four seconds.
No one spoke.
Three!
We didnt take anything! Luke spat, from behind
me.
Two!
I tensed my shoulders. I wanted to charge Gregor.
Maybe we could pile him down before he could lash
out. But his guards
Gregor didnt wait for one. He struck Philip,
cutting a lash into his chest through his coverall.
The Frenchman screamed and jerked backwards,
tripping as his chain pulled taut with Conner. Blood
began to soak his clothes.
Another crack, and another ganger felt the lash
across his arm.
I turned and bent away from Gregor as he aimed it
at me, and I felt the cut run down my back below my
shoulder, grazing ribs. I tumbled over Luke, rolled
onto my side and hid my head as the other gangers
trampled me in their desperation.
More cracks, punctuated by screams. Red and Blue
watched expressionless, but Gregor was foaming at
the mouth, veins bulging in his arms as he swung,
his face twisted with rage. He didnt stop when the
last of us had fallen to the ground, and each crack
brought another cry of pain.
32
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
A gunshot rang out, loud as a thunderclap in the dry
air. Carrows lowered his pistol but did not holster it.
The stern look on his face spoke volumes.
Enough, he said. Your discipline lacks discipline,
Gregor.
Gregors fingers twitched over the whip. You dare?
The Guild-
Carrows eyes narrowed. The Guild will not like that
your temper cost us our schedule.
Gregors face turned red as a beet. That stone was
worth ten crews. A tense second passed, and then
he snarled Get to work! and stormed into his tent.
I met Carrows eyes and nodded once. The foreman
returned it but said nothing. It was enough. Hed
probably saved all our lives.
The work continued, but progress was strained.
Almost everyone had taken a lashing. My own back
stung with every swing of the pick. I woke the next
morning with blood staining my cot.
We had nothing but black hate for Gregor now, and
the bastard shared it back tenfold. He kept his
distance, save to shout at us, and paced near his
tent like an angry bear. We were reduced to half-
rations, and he seemed content for the moment to
starve us into uselessness.
A few days after the lashing, a supply train arrived.
We unloaded more planks and rails while Carrows
spoke with the conductor, just within my earshot.
Was a hanging necessary? The conductor asked.
In my experience, no.
 Then whered the missing one go?
I can only guess he was taken. Perhaps the culprit
is not yet done. Gregors Soulstone was taken three
nights ago. We have not been able to find it.
One of the crew?
No, and they have the scars to prove it.
The conductor sighed. You know, that boy you
hung? I passed that tree not an hour ago. The body
is gone. Id have chalked it up to scavengers but If
there's potential Resser activity, I have to call it in.
Do so, and be quick about it, hm? I do not like our
chances out here.
When the conductor had started his train back
towards Malifaux, I let myself wander near Carrows.
You think a Resurrectionist is hiding way out here?
For a moment, Carrows didnt speak. Then he said,
I believe he is one of us.
The foreman walked away without another word,
leaving me with a cold feeling in my gut.
Whats a Resurrectionist? Luke asked, when wed
settled in for the night. All eight of us huddled near
my cot, speaking in hushed tones.
Someone who makes the dead move, like puppets.
Gregor would kill us all if he suspected, Conner
said. Guild would slap a medal on him for it.
If he aint one himself, I said.
33
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
The words hung in the air between us. A few nodded.
So what now? Luke asked.
Conner put a finger to his lips and gestured at the
tent exit. Something was moving outside, bigger
than Red or Blue.
I pantomimed my intent, waving my arms around the
group, pointing at the shadowy figure, and making a
fist-jabbing gesture. Conner and most of the others
nodded, but Luke went pale.
Now! I bellowed, and the gang charged.
It wasnt a pretty charge. We gangers are chained to
our physical opposite more times than not; it keeps
us from making any distance if we try to run. Luke
was half my size, and the moment I rushed forward,
I almost pulled him off his feet. The others hobbled
forward like kids in a three-legged race, but they were
determined to win. We barreled the figure down into
the dirt with the weight of our bodies, shouting at
the top of our lungs.
Red was on duty that night, lounging by his campfire,
and he was up on his feet like a deer. Carrows and
Blue appeared next, hefting lanterns.
We got you! Conner was shouting. Got you, you
Russian son of a -
It was the stink that clued me in. A bitter-almond
smell. Light fell over our captive, but I knew it wasnt
Gregor.
It was Kurtis. His face was sagging, his flesh slowly
desiccating from the Badlands heat. The noose was
still bound tightly around his neck. Milky-white eyes
turned in dry sockets. The stink was coming from
his guts; rot gas had caused them to burst.
We all started screaming again, this time in panic.
Kurtis managed to wriggle free and sink his teeth
into Philips arm, ripping flesh to the bone. The
 Frenchmans scream turned into a shriek.
The gang scrambled, tangling limbs and chains.
Kurtis rolled onto Philip and started ripping at him,
sinking his gnarled fingers into Philips throat.
Then Luke screamed behind me, and I turned to
see Philips corpse sinking his fingers into Lukes
belly and pulling loops of intestines free. As Luke
fell back into my arms, Philip turned on Conner, who
shouted out Philip's name as bloodied hands ripped
out his eyes.

Shoot it! Carrows shouted, but Red was frozen in
terror. Philips cries turned to bloody gargles. The
foreman snatched Reds rifle and fired with practiced
ease, sending lead through both of Kurtis temples.
Rotten gore and brains splattered as the heavy body
fell.
Muh - m - muh - Luke cried. His face and hands
were almost blue, his guts dragged behind him
through the dirt.
Help us! I shouted.

Wh-what was that? Red was yammering.
An undead, Carrows said, handing the rifle back.
All of you, on your feet! I cannot guarantee it will not
get back up again!
Red turned his rifle towards us and fired blindly,
screaming hysterically. The first bullet hit a ganger in
the thigh, and the second hit Philip in the back, but
the undead Frenchman didnt flinch. More gunshots
rang out until the rifle went dry.

Lay still! I told Luke. I grabbed his guts and

We untangled ourselves, and I helped a very pale started pushing them back into his wound. Dont
Luke to his feet. It w-was... try to move!

Yeah, I know, I said. Kurt. I whirled around, looking for a gun, a stick, anything,
and I saw the pile of mining picks. Get the picks!
Kill it, kill it!
Conner knelt over Philip, frowning as he closed his
chain-mates still eyes. Gregor! Get out here so I
can kill you myself!

Gregor didnt present himself. Our eyes scanned the

camp, but the Russian was nowhere to be seen.

Carrows stepped forward. Gregor! Present

yourself!

Blue took three reluctant steps towards the tent and

lifted the flap with his rifle. Boss...?

A guttural roar came from within, and Blue was

yanked inside. Red screamed, firing at the tent, and
Carrows had to duck out of the way. He darted for
his own tent as Red shouted out for his partner.

34
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 I pulled Luke with me, and the kid screamed in
agony. I grabbed a pick, and a booted foot stomped
down on my hand. Gregor stood over me, his face
blank. He yanked me up like I was a doll. I saw no
anger on his face, no trace of the hate he felt for
everyone and everything. His shirt was soaked with
blood, and I realized it was his, spilled out of a neat
cut across his throat.
I struck his arm and kicked at him, desperate to break
free, but his grip was like iron. Carrows emerged from
his tent with his pistol in hand. He saw Gregor and
fired, striking the Russian in his extended arm.
Against all hope, Luke was still alive. Hed done little
more than whimper as wed fled. He was still pale as
death, and his guts were filthy with blood and dirt.
When I laid him down beside me, he managed to
find his voice. Ah mamma, Im so sorry mamma.
He repeated it several times, tears mixing with the
blood on his face. It was a familiar sight to me, the
kind you see when someone so young realizes his
life is ending.
I dont wanna be here... I dont wanna be here!

It wasnt a kill shot, but it loosened his grip enough Hey, kid, Luke. Look at me.
for me to get free. I hit the dirt, sucked a gulp of air,
and grabbed the closest pick. When Gregor reached
out for me again, I swung the tool with all my might, He blinked several times. W-what?
catching him in the leg just above his knee. I twisted
and yanked, levering to tear his joint apart, and he
fell in a heap as the limb caved in. "You got a big family?

Blue burst from Gregors tent, a knife jutting out
of his chest. He swung his rifle like a club, hitting
Carrows over the head with a horrendous crack.
Gregor twisted around, trying to grab at me, and I
brought my pick down into his skull, making it jut out
of his mouth like a sharp iron tongue. That finally
took the unlife from him, and I pulled Luke up into
my arms.
F-four brothers, he said. And a lil' sister. M-Mary.
His face twisted in sadness.
I sighed. I dont have a family. I was born on the
rails. Never knew my ma. Barely knew my pa. But I
always had the rails. Grew up on them, fought for
em. I even killed a man with one, once. Always
knew Id die on one... I just figured itd be back home
and not--

The scene was a massacre. Philip pounced on Not here, my mind finished. I shook my head.But
another ganger, and while he did, Conner sat up and ah, maybe, when we get this rail built, theyll let us
took down another. Blue turned on Red, who stared go home, right?
in disbelief as his friend and partner bashed his head
in. Every time a dead man fell, he got back up and
Home? Luke asked. His voice was calm. Home.
killed someone else.

Yeah. Your family sounds nice, Luke. Nicest thing I

There was only one way out of this. I turned and ran,
ever heard. I think I'd like to meet them someday.
following the railroad wed built over the days and
weeks before, holding Lukes body against mine like
a father with an oversized infant. I sat quietly, letting him die with just the sound of
empty wind in his ears.
I ran until I didnt hear any more fighting or screaming,
ran until my legs were lead and my back screamed.
I ran until dawn, when I collapsed in the shadow of
a large rock.

35
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 The day slowly ticked by. I sat beside Lukes corpse,
one eye on the horizon behind us, waiting for them
to catch up with me. Sitting in the shade, without
having to work or fight, it occurred to me that I
couldnt remember a day like that, when I could just
watch the world go by. First a drifter, then a soldier,
and finally a ganger. Every day had been a fight to
see dusk again, with nothing but a cold bowl of gruel
and a stiff cot to welcome me.
I blinked. You cant be serious. Hes just a kid. He
doesnt deserve that. I gestured back towards our
camp.
Hes dead, Richter explained. Nothing more than
meat and bone now. And he's slowing you down.
Whatre you gonna do with him?

It didnt seem fair.

Better you dont know, hm? He dropped the key
and canteen into the dirt and backed away.

I took both and unlocked myself from Luke. The click

Just after sundown, I heard the crunch of footsteps. I
opened my eyes and saw Richter coming towards me.
He looked like hed seen better days, but surviving
out in the wilderness, a pint of blood short with no
food or water? I dont think any of us could have done
the same. He twirled the stolen Soulstone in his
fingers, and it glowed like bottled lightning.
Thirsty? He asked, patting a scavenged canteen
on his hip. Quite the day for a stroll, eh?
of the lock sounded like a gunshot.
On your way now, Harry. Auf wiedersehen!
My thoughts were a jumble. I wanted to take Luke
with me, maybe get him home to his family. I wanted
to leap over and rip Richters head off with my bare
hands. I wanted to scream and curl up in the dirt,
cursing God and everyone below Him for this rotten,
miserable existence.

I suddenly realized why Gregor hated that attitude
of his. Just kill me and get it over with, you damn
Resser. My voice was hoarse.
He tilted his head. No. You are a man I respect,
Harry. I do not wish to kill you.
But instead I walked away, following the rails.
Richter started to hum that marching song of his,
cheerful and insane in equal measure. I hugged the
canteen to my chest, shuddering. I tried to put the
world behind me out of my head.

You killed everyone. Conner, Carrows I looked Edge Point couldn't be more than a week away, I
down at Luke. thought. Seven days. Maybe eight. Just keep
walking.

That is the nature of this world, my friend. He

smelled the air and his smile grew. Malifaux is my Behind me, Luke started to sit up.
kind of place. I feel like I can finally be myself here.
Maybe that makes me bad? But I am not without
sympathy.

He held up the key to my chains. A trade.

36
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 AVAILABL
INTO THE OCTO E
BER!

Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

BAYOU
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
breachsidebroadcast.com
 Creation of New Gremlin Families
I knew from the start that I wanted the Gremlin
Through the Breach book, Into the Bayou, to focus
on the various Gremlin families that inhabit the
Bayou. The importance of the LaCroix family in the
miniatures game and the fictions made it clear
that family rivalries were a thing that existed in
the Bayou, and I wanted to make sure that we had
an element of that in the book. However, there
werent actually that many Gremlin families in the
fiction, so I divided the Bayou up into sections
and started writing up descriptions of a bunch of
hitherto unknown Gremlin families.
I started by mapping out the territory for the
families we already knew about. The LaCroix, we
knew, were situated near the Latigo Stronghold,
so they got sketched in first. We also knew that
the Jones family was somewhere near Malifaux
City, as they were a constant annoyance to the
Guild and frequently raided human settlements
and caravans, so they got a spot near the city.
That left the Tuckets as far as the major families
hinted at by Masters from the miniatures game.
The Tuckets were described as attacking caravans
as well, which meant that they needed a parcel
of land on the edge of the Bayou, so I set them
back a bit further from the city. Their proximity
to Hollow Point meant that they would likely be
raiding Union towns and caravans, which when
combined with Mah Tuckets portrayal in her
Crossroads story gave the family an interesting
39
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Mason Crawford
feel. They would likely be stealing machine parts
that they didnt have much use for, so maybe it
was less about the actual objects they stole and
more about the thrill and excitement of the theft?
It clicked nicely into place and helped to make
the Tuckets feel like a much different family than
the nearby Joneses.
After that, I took a look at the map and realized
that all of the major Gremlin families were
clustered in one corner of the Bayou. That made
sense, as they were all Gremlins with a penchant
for interacting with humanity, but surely there
were Gremlins elsewhere, too? That led to the
creation of three other major Gremlin families,
each of them spread out a bit more from the
others.
The first was the Gautraeux, which I put right next
to Kythera. For those of you who havent read
much of the first edition Malifaux fluff, Kythera
was essentially a portal that was built by the
ancient Neverborn to bring the Grave Spirit the
personification of death itself into the world.
It was destroyed at the end of the first Malifaux
book, which sealed the portal and left Kythera in
ruins.
Such an imposing and ancient structure was sure
to have attracted attention before then, however,
so the presence of a family of Gremlins that
 lived near Kythera made sense. Given their close
proximity to the ancient structure, I thought it
would be neat if they were the creepy Gremlin
family, the ones who claimed to hear voices
whispering in their heads and sometimes did
disturbing things. Basically, they were hearing the
Whisper, the mysterious voice that sometimes
shares the secrets of Necromancy with random
Malifaux inhabitants, driving them insane in the
process. Since the Grave Spirit is the source of
necromantic magic in Malifaux, the connection
seemed particularly apt.
Looking south, I put the next Gremlin family at
the southern edge of the swamp. The Gremlins
have always had a love/hate relationship with
pigs, and I knew that I wanted to emphasize
that in this book; I had just finished designing
a Swineherd pursuit, after all! Thus, I wrote up a
family that were the premier hog farmers of the
Bayou and called them the Turners, which should
draw a chuckle from Midwesterners.
the traffic in and out of the Second Breach, which
is controlled by the Ten Thunders. Since Gremlins
are good at mimicking humans its the entire
shtick of the LaCroix family in the miniatures
game I decided that the two families I was
adding here would both copy the aesthetics of
Promise, rather than Malifaux City, which led to
the Tong and Leong families.
There had been talk of the Brewmaster another
Malifaux Master hailing from across the
mountains, but having Gremlins beyond the
borders of the Bayou felt a bit strange, especially
given how few people have been across the Ten
Peaks. Rather than try to work out how a handful
of Gremlins could cross the mountains, I thought
that it would be a more interesting option if this
was instead a bit of subterfuge on the part of
the Ten Thunders. Misdirection and secrecy were
the coins of their realm, and the Brewmaster
servesthe Ten Thunders just as much as he
works with his fellow Gremlins.

Malifaux had introduced Ulix, a Master that

revolved around using Pigs, in the Crossroads
book, so I looked to him for inspiration on the
familys general personality. He was described as
a clever Gremlin with plenty of simple knowledge
and folk wisdom, so the Turners picked up some
of his rustic charm, and Ulix became Ulix Turner.
The Turners had plenty of pigs, but given their
distance from human society (not to mention
the rest of the Bayou), the rustic angle felt very
appropriate for them.

That filled out the southern Bayou pretty well, but

what about the empty northern stretches? Into
the Steam had labeled this part of the Bayou the
Sunken Grasslands, which was a very evocative
name. I decided that the northern stretches of
the swamp were prone to frequent flooding,
caused by the spring thaws in the nearby Ten
Peaks. This meant that the upper stretches of
the Bayou fluctuated between distinct wet and dry
seasons, so the Gremlins this far north probably
had some difficulty in keeping their gunpowder
dry and functional.

The most notable town in the area was Promise,

which is essentially a town that exists to obscure

40
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 Combining all of these elements together gave
the Leong family its niche: they became a family
of Gremlins that had been co-opted by the Ten
Thunders. The idea of the Ten Thunders using
alcohol and weapons to bribe the Gremlins into
disrupting the plans of the Union and Guild was
appealing, and it also ensured that anyone who
settled too close to Promise and thus, who
might have stumbled across the Second Breach
were driven off by Gremlins that had no seeming
tie to the people of Promise.
The Tongs, then, became the flip side of that
coin. They were the antagonistic Gremlins of the
north, the ones that launched raids on Promise
and other Ten Thunders holdings. In a nod to the
Brewmasters claims about hailing from across
the mountains, the Tongs frequently make this
same claim but its most likely just a myth
created by their elders to obscure the fact that
they were pushed northward by stronger Gremlin
families that wanted the better parts of the
swamp for themselves.
With the largest Gremlin families assigned, I
went back through the map and scattered some
smaller families across the Bayou. The Benois
gained a spot right outside Edge Point, which
allowed them to deal with the smugglers, traders,
pork merchants, and other humans who wanted
to discuss business with Gremlins. In addition to
showing that humans and Gremlins are capable
of working together from time to time, this also
meant that Edge Point was a good place to base
campaigns that involved a lot of human and
Gremlin interaction; its residents had far more
peaceful contact with Gremlins than violent, so
Gremlins walking down the street were unlikely to
be shot simply on principle.
The next family was the LeBlancs, who had the
unenviable location of being right next to the
Red Cage, the massive crater that was formed
after the Red Star descended from the sky and
released the Tyrant Cherufe from its prison. A lot
of bad stuff sure happens in the Bayou, doesnt
it? Well, the other Gremlin families noticed this
as well, and now they consider the LeBlancs to
be a cursed family who brought the whole thing
on themselves. The LeBlancs, most of whom
dont understand how or why their lands were
41
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
destroyed, have basically come to the same
conclusion as their neighbors. Worse yet, theyve
been stuck fighting the steady swarm of twisted
abominations that scrambles up from the Red
Cage, which has only contributed to making them
a sullen and beleaguered people.
The Fishbockers were in a good spot at the center
of the Bayou, so they became the merchants of the
Bayou, trading pigs from the Tuners for mystical
relics from the Gautraeux, the human weapons
the Joneses stole from caravans for mechanical
parts from the Tuckets, and so on. To facilitate
this, the Fishbockers became the primary hosts
of Bayou Bashes, which are a combination of
festival, swap meet, and competition all rolled
into one. This affords them the opportunity to
wheel and deal with all of the various families
and also creates a useful event for allowing the
various Gremlin families to interact with each
other on a regular basis.
Bayou Bashes ended up being a pretty significant
part of Gremlin culture, and for good reason;
it gives Fatemasters a useful way to kick off
an adventure in the Bayou. There are plenty
of ways that these events can lead to conflict:
characters might want to participate in a series
of competitions for their own amusement, obtain
some rare item that they cant find anywhere else,
or even find a rival to settle a score while shes
distracted. The journey to a Bayou Bash can be
an adventure in itself, even if the Fated arent
attending; anyone is going to be a bit put-out by
a bunch of traveling Gremlins showing up in their
village and camping out for a day or two on their
way to such a gathering.
The Brackenridge and Cruickshank families were
added next, and they both got a healthy dose
of feuding, similar to the real life feud between
the Hatfields and the McCoys. In this case, I
decided that the feud was over pigs or rather,
the constant thieving of Brackenridge pigs by
Cruickshank pig rustlers. This creates instant
tension between Brackenridge and Cruickshank
characters without escalating the situation into
one involving deadly force: Brackenridge and
Cruickshank Fated character can sling insults at
each other but still be able to (grudgingly) work
together. SImilarly, bumping into a Fatemaster
 character from a rival faction could make for a fun
bit of insult shouting without completely derailing
the adventure.
The last major family I added to the map was the
Nuema, which was located in the far north, far
deeper in the swamp than the Leongs and Tongs.
They share the same Three Kingdoms influence
as their more prolific cousins, but unlike either
of their neighbors, they keep to themselves and
avoid contact with outsiders. Theyre a mystery,
in that they adhere to strange traditions and
call upon the spirits of the Bayou to protect
themselves from their enemies, a practice they
learned from a human woman who calls herself
the Black Dragon. The Nuema rescued the Black
Dragon from the depths of the swamp a hundred
years ago and sheltered her from the Neverborn,
and in the time since, she hasnt aged so much
as a day.
Of course, not every Gremlin family is successful
enough to have carved out a parcel of land for
itself. There are plenty of other, smaller families
that are scattered throughout the swamp, living
42
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
in the lands of their distant cousins. The Jebsen
family is perhaps the most notable, if only on
account of Burt Jebsen, the infamous Gremlin
mercenary from the tabletop game, but the
Hedfields, Picketts, Clampetts, and Suttons are
no less proud of their history than any of the
larger families.
I left the general personalities and traits of these
smaller families undefined in order to give players
and Fatemasters a broad canvas to paint their
own ideas upon. For instance, if a Fatemaster
decides that she wants a family that is known for,
oh, lets say being air pirates that cruise around
in ramshackle zeppelins, then she can just make
those Gremlins members of the Robichaud family
without having to explain away any existing fluff
they might have had. Theres a whole lot of fluff in
the book about a lot of different Gremlin families,
but sometimes its just as important to leave
room for players and Fatemasters to add their
own touches to a world.
 AVAILABL
SEPT
EMBE E
R!

Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

 Rust and Ruin
A one-shot ADVENTURE FOR THROUGH THE BREACH
In this adventure, the Fated are challenged with
finding the missing daughter of a Guard sergeant,
but are things really what they seem?
Destiny Steps:
CRSC 13R: When you sup upon your pride
and dance with cadavers could describe the
characters encounter with the Iron Zombies,
especially if she was particularly prideful earlier
in the adventure. In this event, the Iron Zombies
can be described as moving in a manner that
resembles a jerky dance.
LLBC At: If overconfidence proves your
theory true is a great step for a character that
suspects the true reasons behind Annabelles
disappearance.
Prologue:
The Fated are stopped by a Guard patrol and
told that their presence has been requested at
a nearby Guard station. If they question why, the
guardsmen explain that theyre not in any sort
of trouble; their sergeant would simply like to
have a few words with them. If the Fated refuse
to cooperate, the Guard wont force the matter
but will instead point out that at some point in
the future, the Fated will likely need help with
something, and that having the gratitude of a
Guard sergeant could make everything much
easier.
44
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Mark Bingham and
Mason Crawford
If the Fated agree to accompany the guardsmen,
read the following text:
The guardsmen escort you to a fortified, two-
story building a few blocks away. A blonde woman
in a Guard jacket sits in one of the upper story
windows, cradling a long rifle in her arms as she
watches you approach with indifferent attention.
Once inside, a large man with a sergeants insignia
pushes to his feet and approaches you, offering
his hand. Thanks for coming, he rumbles in a
deep voice. Behind his sideburns and bushy
mustache, you can see the face of a very proper
and attentive man.
Im Sergeant Adam MacAlester. You seem like
people of action, so Ill cut right to the chase. I
need discreet assistance with a matter of a
personal and time sensitive nature. I cant pay
very much, but I can make certain that the Guild
looks upon you with a softer eye for a while. Do I
have your attention?
MacAlester can offer the Fated 10 scrip for their
assistance, but more importantly, hes also willing
to pull some strings in the Guild for them, either
after theyve finished their mission or at a future
date.

Scene 1: The Sergeant's Dilemma
Once the Fated have agreed to help him,
MacAlester will go into more detail on what he
wants them to do. Read the following text:
MacAlester motions for the other guardsmen to
step outside, and he folds his wide arms behind
his back as he waits for them to obey his orders.
Once youre alone with him, he explains the
situation. Yesterday afternoon, one of our patrols
went missing under suspicious circumstances.
The Guard has been searching for the patrol since
they failed to report in, and suspicion has fallen
upon the woman they were escorting. I would like
for you to find the missing patrol before the Guard
does and bring the woman to me.
He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a
folded black-and-white photograph, which he
hands to you. It depicts a young woman of about
fifteen years. This is the woman. She is not to be
harmed under any circumstances.
If the Fated ask why MacAlester doesnt want the
Guild Guard to find the girl, read the following
text:
Politics, he sighs, clearly exasperated. Her
father supported Rowan von Brandt after the
Governor-General died, and there are a few
people in the Guild that wouldnt mind seeing a
bit of misfortune coming his way for backing the
wrong horse. I cant count on anyone in the Guild
actually putting much effort into looking for her.
If the Fated ask about the womans identity,
MacAlester claims that she is the daughter of
a Guild officer, and leaves it at that, but a TN
12 Notice Challenge allows a character to notice
the family resemblance between MacAlester and
the girl in the photograph. Similarly, a TN 12
Scrutiny Challenge allows the Fated to realize
that the man is holding something back and that
he seems more concerned about the girls safety
than he is letting on.
45
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
If any of the Fated mention that they suspect a
connection between MacAlester and the girl, read
the following text:
Shes my daughter, he admits, an unpleasant
look crossing his face. Her name is Annabelle.
Shes a bit of a firebrand, like her mother, but
shes still a good kid, despite the mouth on her.
There have been a few disappearances in our
neighborhood lately, so I put two guardsmen on
her for protection.
MacAlester snorts in amusement. Oh, you
can bet she hated that, but it was for her own
good. Theyre both good soldiers, the sort who
would lay down their lives to keep her safe. If all
three of them have disappeared He pauses,
then shakes his head. Something must have
happened. Time is of the essence.
A TN 12 Scrutiny Challenge reveals that MacAlester
is being truthful, even if he is downplaying the
situation a bit. Hes on duty and cant leave his post,
or he would be looking for Annabelle himself.
MacAlester gives the Fated a map of Downtown with
the patrols route marked out on it. He notes that
they arrived at the womans home and checked in as
they had been doing all week but disappeared while
escorting her to her finishing school fifteen blocks
away. He suggests that they start at his home and
walk the route, looking for clues.
If the Fated choose to investigate Annabelles home,
go to Scene 2: The MacAlester Residence (pg. 46).
If they choose to investigate the finishing school, go
to Scene 3: Finishing School.
 Scene 2: The MacAlester Residence
When the Fated arrive at the MacAlester
residence, read the following text:
The two-story home in front of you is crafted from
sturdy brick and surrounded by a well-trimmed
landscape and a sturdy, wrought iron fence. The
other houses on the street are similarly built,
and the frequent gas lampposts lining the wide
street give you the impression of a relatively safe
neighborhood.
There are two Guild guardsmen standing watch
outside the home, and as you approach, they
casually place their hands on their holstered
pistols, as if to say, keep on walking.
Until the guardsmen know that the Fated are there
on behalf of Sergeant MacAlester, theyll order the
Fated to leave them alone. They have their orders,
and those orders dont involve talking with street
riff-raff.
Once the Fated explain that theyre visiting the house
on behalf of Sergeant MacAlester, the guardsmen
relax and show them into the house to look around.
The main floor consists of a small den, a dining
room, and a small half-bathroom, while the second
floor mainly contains three bedrooms, one of which
has been converted into a small library. Christine
MacAlester, Annabelles mother, welcomes them
but otherwise tries to stay out of their way; a TN 8
Scrutiny Challenge reveals that shes beside herself
with worry.
The guardsmen dont really think that theres much
to find in the house, and they will tell the Fated as
much, but neither do they believe that theres any
harm in being thorough.
Searching the house for clues is handled via an
Ongoing Challenge:
46
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
Searching For Clues
Skills Allowed: Notice, Scrutiny
Target Number: 9
Duration: 1 Minute
Success Requirement: 6
Failure Requirement: 2
At the end of each Duration, the Fated learn one Clue
from the list below for each success they achieved.
If the Fated manage to successfully complete the
Ongoing Challenge, they learn the Breakthrough,
which should give them a solid push in the right
direction. If they critically fail the Ongoing Challenge,
however, then they learn the Red Herring, which is
likely to pull them well off course.
Clues (In No Specific Order)
* The Fated find a playbill to a show in the southern
part of downtown with feminine handwriting on the
back: L30, R43, R2. MacAlester or his wife can
identify the handwriting as belonging to Annabelle.
(This is the combination to the lock that Annabelle
purchased for her warehouse; she wrote it down on
the first piece of paper she could find, which hints
at her location.)
* While questioning Mrs. MacAlester, she mentions
that Annabelle has been a bit moody lately, though
she attributes that to being a teenage girl more
than anything else. However, she also mentions
that shes caught her trying to sneak out at night.
The disappearances were more of an excuse to
put guards on her than any real worry on their part;
she and her husband were more concerned about
her sneaking out to meet with boys. (In actuality,
Annabelle has been sneaking out to abduct people
and practice necromancy.)
* Tucked under the mattress in Annabelles room
is a list of female names. A few of them have been
circled with words such as Legs? or Chest?
written next to them, while others have been
scratched out. If the Fated think to check, the circled
names match the names of the women who have
recently disappeared in the neighborhood. (This is
Annabelles list of potential victims from when she
 was first planning her abductions; she forgot that
the list was here when she gathered the rest of the
incriminating evidence against her.)
* As the Fated are searching Annabelles room,
they uncover the shattered remains of a ceramic
piggy bank in one of her dresser drawers. (If the
Fated think to ask her, Mrs. MacAlester reveals that
Annabelle had been saving up her allowance lately
and must have had twenty or thirty scrip saved up
in total. They give her three scrip per week to spend
on dresses or other luxuries which hints at the
generous size of Sergeant MacAlesters paycheck.)
* Mrs. MacAlester mentions that Annabelle has been
listening to the Aethervox lately, but whenever she
went into to her room, Annabelle just flicked the device
off and yelled at her mother to leave her alone. Mrs.
MacAlester remembers hearing a male voice talking
on the Aethervox and suspects that a boy might have
gotten a hold of some broadcasting equipment and
tried to woo her daughter. The Aethervox is nowhere to
be found in her room. (Annabelle was actually listening
to the broadcasts of Professor Albus Von Schtook on
the creation of Iron Zombies; she moved the Aethervox
to her warehouse the day before her parents assigned
guards to watch over her.)
Following The Trail
If the Fated attempt to follow the route of the
guardsmen, they can make TN 12 Track Challenges
to pick up the trail and start following the tracks of
the group, but only if they start at her home; there
are no tracks leading from the school that are recent
enough to follow, and even if the Fated were able,
they would just lead back to Annabelles house.
The footprints follow the usual path Annabelle
takes to the schoolhouse, down a somewhat slow
side street, until around the halfway point when
Annabelles footprints suddenly branch out from
the two guards, as if she started running. All three
sets of prints lead to a large warehouse near the
southern, riverfront edge of the Downtown district.
This is the same warehouse the Fated may have
learned about in the Searching For Clues Ongoing
Challenge.

Breakthrough: The Fated find half a hand-written

receipt for the rental of a warehouse in the trash in
Annabelles room. The receipt lists the location of
the warehouse, which is along the riverfront at the
very southern part of the Downtown district. (This
points the Fated toward Scene 4: The Warehouse,
where Annabelle has set up her secret lair.)

Red Herring: Tucked away in the upstairs library is

a long letter from R. James professing his love for
an unnamed woman in graphic and sensual detail. It
looks like its been read and reread multiple times.
(The letter actually belongs to Annabelles mother,
Christine, who is editing it for a friend of the family,
in the hopes of helping him impress his girlfriend.
Mr. James spelling and grammar dont quite match
his heart, so she was doing him a personal favor
but has neglected to mention such to her husband,
under the (correct) belief that he would be upset. If
the letter is brought up to either of them, it sets off
a very heated and very loud argument between them
that lasts through the rest of the adventure.)

47
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 Scene 3: Finishing School Miss Nevaeh

If the Fated choose to investigate Annabelles If the Fated ask to speak with Miss Nevaeh, they
finishing school, read the following text: have to succeed on a TN 10 Convince Challenge
to persuade Taylor to bother her. On a failure, he
tells them that shes busy teaching and cant be
Miss Nevaehs School For Young Women is a bothered, but on a success, he steps into the
simple, squat brick building that looks more like a schoolhouse and fetches her.
warehouse than a traditional school. The symbol
of the Guild is prominently displayed to either
side of the buildings doors, and next to those, a Nevaeh Adira is a black woman in her late fifties.
Guild Guard in a long red cloak is leaning against She peers out at the world from behind delicate
the brick and eating an apple. spectacles, and her dark hair is pulled back behind
her head in a tight bun. Nevaeh is annoyed at being
Upon noticing your approach, he swallows one
pulled away, but if the Fated make a successful TN
more bite, tosses the apple core to his feet, and
10 Bureaucracy, Bewitch, or Convince Challenge (or
raises a hand. Thowwy, he says, his mouth still
a TN 14 Intimidate Challenge), she sighs, removes
full of food. No entranth.
her spectacles to clean them, and tells the Fated
that Annabelle is a very intelligent young woman
who nevertheless is a problem student.
The guardsman Brian Taylor has worked hard
to obtain the cushy job of guarding a schoolhouse
Nevaeh also reveals that Annabelle is actually the
filled with pretty teenage girls, and he takes offense
third one of her girls to go missing, though none
to any suggestions that he might not be doing his
of them went missing at her school. If the Fated
job correctly. If the Fated are polite and respectful,
achieved a Margin of Success on their Bureaucracy,
however, hes friendly enough, and a TN 9 Bewitch
Bewitch, Convince, or Intimidate Challenge, she
Challenge (or a TN 12 Intimidate Challenge) gets
adds that of all three of the missing girls, Annabelle
him talking freely about Annabelle MacAlester.
is the only one she doesnt particularly want back.
That girl is trouble, she says.
Taylor explains that Miss Nevaehs is a finishing
school for the daughters of prominent Guild officials,
She refuses to allow the Fated to search her school,
and as such, security is pretty tight. That security
noting that her girls dont need to be disturbed by
consists mostly of him, of course, but hes confident
any more disappearances; theyre already on edge
in his own abilities. He claims that Annabelle
as it is.
MacAlester never arrived at the school yesterday (or
today, for that matter), and that while he is sworn
to protect the young women at the school, hes not
actually responsible for getting them there in one
piece. As far as hes concerned, thats a failing of
her two bodyguards.

As far as Annabelle herself, Taylor always got the

impression that she was a bit stuck up, and that
the other girls didnt really care for her all that much.
He had to step in a few times after her mouth got the
better of her that girl can swear out a sailor any
day of the week and hes seen Miss Nevaeh haul
her outside by the ear on more than one occasion to
scold her away from the other students.

48
Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 The stats for the Iron Zombies can be found on page
Scene 4: The Warehouse 52.

When the Fated arrive at the warehouse, read the

following text:
Annabelle's Flight

The warehouse seems to be divided into two
sections, one on solid ground, and one that opens
out onto the river, allowing for the easy loading of
crates and other materials from a docked boat.
The only entrance or at least, the only entrance
that doesnt involve swimming is a wooden door
with a hefty padlock hanging from a brand new
latch. The latch and the padlock are both currently
open, hinting that someone is inside.
If the Fated enter through the front door, the front
room is stacked with empty crates that Annabelle
moves out of the back room. Two of her creations
the former remains of two of her classmates linger
here, preserved in death as Iron Zombies.
The shrieks and the sound of the second Iron
Zombies petrol motor starting up are loud enough
to alert Annabelle of the Fateds presence, and she
hurries to escape the warehouse as quickly as she
can by climbing into a moored boat and motoring off
down the river.
She climbs into the boat at the start of the fourth
round of combat, starts the motor at the start of the
fifth round, and starts driving it out onto the river
at the start of the sixth round. By the start of the
seventh round, shes out of sight. If she escapes,
see the Conclusion section on page 50 for more
details.

The Fated can attempt TN 12 Stealth Challenges

to sneak past the two Iron Zombies. On a success,
they can enter the rear of the warehouse without
alerting them, but if even a single Fated fails the
Challenge (or if the Fated dont bother with Stealth),
they attack with screeches of warning. Read the
following text if this happens:

Suddenly, theres a high-pitched shriek as a

misshapen abomination lurches out from behind
a wooden create. It might have been a teenage
girl at one point, but its flesh has been cut up and
sewn back together in multiple places, and its
hands have been replaced with a mangled mess
of knives, like spiny gloves. The most horrible
thing, though, is the way its swollen tongue hangs
limply from its upper skull, which is entirely
missing its lower jaw.

The shriek is answered by a second creature,

similar in basic design as the first but somehow
more horrible. Its chest has been opened up like
an autopsy, and its internal organs have been
replaced with what you can only assume is some
sort of petrol motor from a motorized boat. It
sputters as the creature raises its right arm, once,
twice, before finally jumping to life and powering
the rotating cutting blade which has replaced its
entire head.

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 The Back Room
If the Fated are able to quietly make their way past
the two Iron Zombies (or if they dive into the water
and swim around to the side of the warehouse thats
open to the water), read the following text:
The rear room of the warehouse opens up to the
river at its far end, allowing small boats to dock
inside and unload their cargo at their leisure. At the
moment, theres only a single boat moored to the
docks, a small, two-person rowboat thats been fitted
with a cheap petrol motor.
At the center of the room, the grisly remains of an
adult man are spread across a low, flat table. His
corpse has been dismembered at all the major
joints, and in places, there are what look to be
salvaged industrial parts bolted onto the bones in
these pieces in a thoroughly unwholesome manner.
A second corpse lies nearby on the ground, still
dressed in its Guild Guard uniform.
A young woman wearing a surgeons smock and
mask a teenage girl, really is hovering over the
pieces and listening intently to a nearby aethervox,
from which emanates the soothing tone of a mans
voice.
consider the benefits of a ball-and-socket joint
over that of a hinge joint, the voice says in an
academic manner. Mobility, of course, is the most
obvious, and for that reason alone it is often better to
leave the natural anatomy in place at the shoulder.
The elbow joint a hinge joint, remember is a
much better place to add improvements to the
corpse
The girl nods in silent agreement with the voice
and moves the large knife in her hand down as
appropriate, as if following the instructions being
broadcast over the aethervox airwaves.
The girl is Annabelle MacAlester, a budding
Resurrectionist. The broadcast she is listening
to is one of the academic lectures of Professor
Albus Von Schtook, one of the citys most notorious
necromancers.
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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
If the Fated snuck up on Annabelle, they can
attempt TN 12 Stealth Challenges to get the drop
on her. Otherwise she shouts in surprise and rushes
toward the motor boat in an attempt to escape. If
hard-pressed, she draws upon her magic to defend
herself while trying to get to the boat and escape. If
the Fated didnt defeat the two Iron Zombies in the
first room, she calls out to them to defend her, and
they rush into the second room.
The motor boat is an unstable platform, so
characters firing ranged weapons while on it receive
- to their attack flip. The engine can be started as
a 2 AP Action, and once started, it can be moved 15
yards per AP spent controlling it.
Any character who suffers damage while on the motor
boat must succeed at an Acrobatics Challenge (TN
6 + damage received) or be knocked into the water
by the force of the attack. Climbing back into the
boat requires 2 AP and a TN 10 Athletics Challenge.
If the Fated decide to attack the boat, it has Armor
+1 and 8 Wounds. When it reaches 0 Wounds, it
breaks apart.
If the Fated failed to sneak up on Annabelle, shes
likely either in the process of leaving or already
gone, as described in Annabelles Flight on page 49.
Conclusion
If the Fated return Annabelle to her father, he
happily pays them the 10 scrip he promised and
acknowledges that he owes them a favor. He initially
doesnt listen to any claims about his daughter being
a Resurrectionist, but a TN 14 Convince Challenge
is enough to get him to look at the evidence
objectively provided that his daughter is still alive.
If the Fated killed her, MacAlester is blinded with
grief and vows vengeance against the Fated; theyre
likely in for some deep trouble with the Guild as he
finds every excuse he can to make the Fateds life
miserable.
If Annabelle escaped, she returns home and tells her
parents an elaborate story about being kidnapped by
a necromancer and escaping in a boat as he became
 distracted by someone attacking his secret lab. If the Fated dont find some way to bring Annabelle
There are plenty of holes to be found and evidence to justice (or at the very least, to stop her interest
to the contrary, but her parents are glad to have in necromancy), she eventually kills her parents in
her home and dont bother to investigate the matter their sleep and transforms them into Iron Zombies.
further. A TN 14 Convince Challenge is once again She leads them into the sewers in search of Von
enough to get her father to look at the evidence Schtook, intending to become his greatest student.
objectively, though his response is to place her Von Schtook is all too happy to learn that a gifted
under heavier protection, rather than subject her to student has been listening to his lectures, and
the Guilds criminal justice system. he happily welcomes her into his University of
Transmortis and then promptly has his students
murder and reanimate the egotistical young woman
If Fated inform the Guild of Annabelles activities, the as an Iron Zombie.
Death Marshals investigate the situation and quickly
confirm the Fateds belief that shes responsible for
the deaths and resulting necromancy. If Sergeant
MacAlester hasnt been convinced of his daughters
guilt, he does his best to block the investigation
while sending his wife and daughter south to Edge
Point under assumed names. If hes been convinced
that his daughter is responsible, he does the same
but takes his own life afterward.

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 Iron Zombie Annabelle MacAlester
Minion (5), Undead, Construct, Horror, Academic Enforcer (7), Living, Academic

Might Grace Speed Resilience Might Grace Speed Resilience

3 -1 1 2 -2 1 1 -1
Charm Intellect Cunning Tenacity Charm Intellect Cunning Tenacity
-3 0 2 2 -1 2 1 0
Defense Walk Height Initiative Defense Walk Height Initiative
3 (8) 5 2 2 (7) 3 (10) 5 2 2 (9)
Willpower Charge Wounds Willpower Charge Wounds
4 (9) 5 7 2 (9) 5 4

Skills: Artefacting 1, Evade 2, Melee 2, Notice 1, Stitching 1, Skills: Art 2, Artefacting 2, Deceive 2, History 1, Literacy 2,
Toughness 2. Mathematics 1, Notice 1, Stitching 2, Toughness 2.

Armor +1: Reduce all damage this character suffers by +1,
to a minimum of 1.
Hard to Wound +1: Damage flips against this character
receive -.
Cynic: Annabelle finds it difficult to believe that people are
able to act for honorable reasons. She gains + on any
duels made to resist deception.
Wp (C) Twisted Mind: After Annabelle succeeds, the
attacker suffers 2 damage.

(1) Dissectors (Melee)

AV: 5 (10) ========= Rg: y1 ======= Resist: Df (1) Purloined Guard Pistol (Pistol)
Target suffers 2/3/5 damage. AV: 1 (8) ========= Rg: y12 ====== Resist: Df
t Mutilate: After damaging, the target gains Slow. Target suffers 1/3/4 damage.

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 Family Feud
Special
Hoffman may target Ryle with Machine Puppet
as if Ryle were friendly. Anna Lovelace gains the
following Action:
Crew Selection
(1) My Plaything: Target Neutral Ryle within 8 takes
This is a four player scenario. Randomly select a (1) Action controlled by this model.
two teams of two players each, and then randomly
select one team to be the Attackers and the other
the Defenders. Each player brings a 20ss Crew led Victory
by a Henchman. The Attacking Crew adds Hoffman At the end of the game, each Crew scores 1 VP
to one of its players Crews (chosen randomly). The for each non-Peon model within 2 of Ryle, up to a
Defending Crew adds Anna Lovelace to one of its maximum of 4.
players Crews (chosen randomly).
Note: This may be run as a two player scenario, Schemes
depending on turnout.
This scenario uses a unique Scheme Pool. These
Schemes are selected normally and are only revealed
Teams once they have scored 1 or more VP. Schemes may not
All models on a teams combined Crew are considered score more than 3 VP:
friendly to each other, although they will be controlled Youre On My Side, Brother!: When Ryle kills or
by the member of the team which hired them. sacrifices an enemy model, score 1 VP.
The Soulstone Pool of the combined Crew may go He Is Just Using You: When Ryle kills or sacrifices
above the usual cap of 7, up to 14. the enemy Leader, score 3 VP.
Each team shares a deck, but each player has a hand He Needs to Suffer: When you kill or sacrifice Ryle,
of 4 cards (instead of the usual 6) which may only be score 3 VP. If you score VP in this way, the enemy Crew
used for the Actions/Abilities and for Cheating Fate may summon a Neutral Ryle within 6 of the Center
with the models belonging to their original Crew. with 2 Wounds remaining.
Teams flip for initiative and alternate Activating models Come To Me, Brother!: At the end of every Turn after
as if each team were a single player. However, each the first, score 1 VP if this Crews Leader is within
player has complete control over the models which 4 of Ryle.
they selected for their original Crew in all aspects
including Cheating Fate and using Soulstones. When
it is a teams turn to Activate a model, they must
choose which players model they are Activating.
Each team shares a Soulstone Pool, so players
must discuss using Soulstones with their teammate
carefully!
Hoffman and Anna Lovelace are considered the
Leaders for all Strategy and Scheme purposes.
Teammates may show each other
their hands without revealing them
to the opposing team. However,
all other communication must
be public and in view/hearing
range of the opposing team
(and in a language they can
understand).

Set Up
Place Ryle in the center of the board. He counts
as a Neutral Model (Shifting Loyalties pg. 17) which
Activates after each Leader completes its Activation
(up to twice per Turn). The scenario uses Standard
Deployment.

Yro Hare (Order #9746792)

Yro Hare (Order #9746792)
 UNTIL NEXT TIME!

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Yro Hare (Order #9746792)