3 replies to this topic

[Hex N. Hammer]

I stumbled onto the brewery last week when I was researching dwarf fluff stuff for my up and coming treasure hunter warband. I haven't played Mordheim in years, but some friends have taken up the banner and I'll be damned if I don't bring the most fun to play warband to our table! Anyhow, here's the short and narrow of what I've got so far:

 

Bort Garlsson, son of Garl Gemeater

 

Garl (insert father's dwarven or clan name here), in his day was a competent warrior and highly skilled gemsmith. His mastery of the jeweler's craft was without equal in his area of the Empire and he attained great local fame and renown in Middenheim and its neighboring bergs. A dedicated tradesman, his reputation of eating, sleeping and breathing gems all hours of the day and night afforded him his nickname of "Gemeater." (Which he begrudgingly accepted upon learning the alternative was "Gemsh**ter")

 

Garl sired one offspring, his son Bort. As the boy grew, immersed in a melting pot of dwarven and human cultures, he came to share his father's shrewd business sense as well as an incredible fondness for the stories of old. Stories of epic proportions and ancient codes by which he was rasied. His deep sense of nostalgia and a longing to make something for himself as his father before him has led Bort to the lofty goal of someday founding a brewery in the pioneering spirit of his childhood hero Jozef Bugman.

 

Decades of arguing with his father have finally yielded Bort his opportunity, as Garl has agreed to both financially and morally support his son's dream. There were no uncertain terms however: Bort must venture to the recently decimated and wildly rumored city of Mordheim, returning with "as much gem quality wyrdstone as a miner's pony can carry" to earn his father's backing and blessing.

 

Never having had to prove himself in battle thus far in life, Bort has solicited the aid of his closet friend (an engineer), several dour but adventurous dwarf slayers and a handful of other dwarves willing to make the trek to the city of doom.

 

 

All insight and feedback is appreciated! Hopefully nothing in the story seems TOO out of character for dwarves.

 

• I'd love to hear suggestions for a surname/clan name for Bort's father
• Also name ideas for the warband's engineer and 2 slayers

I'm also curious about dwarves settled in (or coming from) the Middle Mountains. I did some reasearch and couldn't turn up anything. I know there is a chaos stronghold there according to "current" maps but I don't think that was the case throughout Warhammer past (pre IC 1999, when Mordheim exploded). I'd like their clan to hail from somewhere near Middenheim, eventhough Bort's father Garl has lived in the Empire and been trading with humans for quite some time.

[Alebelly_Cragfist]

There's a few anomolies:

 

1. Wyrdstone is something Dwarf would look to destroy rather than work with, It's pure Chaos/Magic turned solid. Plus, the majority of the Empire folk, with huge distrust of anything magical would likely shop him in to the local Sigmarites / Witch Hunters. A better "in" would be to seek out rumours of large, untapped gem seams beneath Mordheim, or a prized piece of Garl's that has been lost within Mordheim, if Bort can recover it, he will fund his brewing dreams.

 

2. Dwarfs learn skills within clans. Bort not following in his father's footsteps would both be highly unlikely and also a great insult to his Father. Bort may well love a beer or threee like many a Dwarf before him, but it's unlikely a Brewing Clan would take him into their clan for training as an apprentice and he wouldn't learn from a Human's shoddy practices.

 

3. Bort and Garl wold share the same Clan name (being from the same clan). It is likely that if Garl is a goldsmith / gem cutter, his clan would also be. Gemtooth. Goldgut, Silverbeard, anything combining gems/precious metals with a Dwarf artifact / body part are contenders.

 

There's no official fluff supporting any activity of Dwarfs within the Middle Mountains. That is not to say that prospecting teams have not scoured it at some point for seams. Their clan could have come from the Dragonbacks and been dispossessed, eventually (what was left of them after the Greenskin incursions) settled in an Umgi town and set up shop to earn a living.

[Hex N. Hammer]

Thanks for a fantastic and informative reply.

 

1. From the Mordheim fluff it seemed like everyone in the empire and their grandmother are after wyrdstone, either for sinister magics, it's curative powers or just to shop it for pure wealth gain. Deep down I should have known it was chaotic, and re-writing a credible hook shouldn't be a problem. One of my friend's IS playing Witch Hunters though...

 

2. I knew breaking out into another profession would be a big disconnect. I had thought about writing in that his close friend making the trip with him was a brewing engineer, but then his in-game abilities (bettering range weapons) wouldn't make as much sense. I think brewing engineering might be too modern day of a concept. I could just write it as he wants to greatly expand his father's operations, but I did want to (no matter how remotely) tie it into brewing and Bugman's. Maybe the slayers could be disgraced brewers? I know changing professions is extremely far fetched which is why I set him and his father near Middenheim and tried to downplay a strong family/hold background. This will bug me though and I'm kind of nitpicky about correct fluff. I'll brainstorm some more. I could make his father a brewer, or turn his father into an uncle? Though Im guessing anyone in a brewing family would still be brewing.

 

3. I appreciate the naming device you shared. I like the ring of Silverbeard, but I'm going to think on it some more.

 

Those last few lines you wrote about clan origin were exactly what I was thinking, that his father was a ranger or part of a scouting mining crew, I just didn't feel the need to completely flesh out the father or families backstory... yet.

[Alebelly_Cragfist]

You could have a disgraced engineer from Zhufbar. The Engineers of Zhufbar aid the design and development of brewing apparatus alongside the brewing clans there. All it would take is one mishap with a bith too much pressure on a new and untried device, and boom, one expelled Engineer (especially if he was the cause of a lack of ale for several months).

 

Such engineers often seek out patrons amongst the "more enlightened" Umgi in Human settlements. You could well have him trying to perfect his machine before returning to Zhufbar in triumph. He could well strike up a friendship with Bort. Perhaps the slightly unhinged Engineer believes warpstone could be used as a new power source of untold power? Grind it down to dust, place it in a pressure boiler...

 

Slayers are slayers, they don't need an excuse to be in Mordheim other than the reputation of grave danger and almost certain death