Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Just getting it started. I'll be posting the extensive fluff behind my Night Goblin Squig Cult army here. The story of the Cult of the Great Cave Squig touches many races of the old world, from Ogres to Lizard Men, even Clan Pestilence knows of the insufferable group of squigly fanatics.

Sort on time now, but I wanted to get this rolling. I'll be posting lots more later.

The Good Green wrote:Just getting it started. I'll be posting the extensive fluff behind my Night Goblin Squig Cult army here. The story of the Cult of the Great Cave Squig touches many races of the old world, from Ogres to Lizard Men, even Clan Pestilence knows of the insufferable group of squigly fanatics.

Sort on time now, but I wanted to get this rolling. I'll be posting lots more later.

Well, then I have a model that you may be interested in
A friend of mine sculpted a Hero on Giant Squig (before the model came out)
It is...huge. If you might be interested I can send a pic to you. It is unpainted.

I would love to see a pic. I love the squiggly little buggers. I've seen a pic of a GIANT cave squig on a different thread.

O.K., I'll see if I can get a pic of it for you. The Squigg is great, the rider looks cool, but he is a bit big compared to other Night Gobbos.

Hey, I got those pics up. They should be on my gallery page.

whitestagg wrote:Hey, I got those pics up. They should be on my gallery page.

Can't see them :(

ahhhhh Squigs, the one thing that could sway me to start collecting Night Gobbo's!

Heh, I hadn't finished uploading them I guess. They should be visible now.

That looks great! It reminds me of the Isz from The Maxx. The goblin seems a little big though. Then again, I don't really know how the goblins and those aliens compare...

I've decided to do the Squig Cult with GW minis only. At least for now. I'm working on a pirate crew that wont have any GW minis. They don't have any good options for pirates, save for a few models that come out of the Empire Free Company, but that's only three or four figures out of twenty...

Come to think of it, this would be the right place to delve into how the two groups will overlap. I don't have enough time to go into real detail now, but in the vein of "getting started":

The Cult of the Great Cave Squig is located in the mountains around the Sour Sea. Specifically, near Red Cloud Mt. Opposite the dreadful Cripple Peaks.

The Pirates of the Sour Sea, as their name suggests, are the principle ship that sails between Tilea and the Sour Sea, where they harvest Sulfur (among other things) from the rich volcanic landscape.

The ship also acts as a passenger ship for "big game" hunters, meaning chiefly giants and trolls, not to mention the undead!

There are a few reasons for the Big Game hunting: there are Dwarf slayer pirates manning the cannons on the ship (as well as a Goblin Hewer that I will be building onto the bow)... so I guess there will be some GW pirates. So, the dwarf pirates ironically don't take part in the harvesting of rock. They spend their time ashore hunting or drinking. They don't mingle with the other crew very much, if at all.

The sulfur mining operation is handled by gnoblar mostly and a few men. This is where the Squig Cult enters most prominently, and least adversarially. The cult also has a mining operation in the area. So the green skin miners help each other out here and there. Also the cult gets some new cultists from the gnoblar camp.

That's all I have time for now (more than I thought). I hope you enjoy.

Ok, I'm going for an over view of my two "armies": The Cult of the Great Cave Squig and The Pirates of the Sour Sea.

I will probably repeat myself to some degree, as I have posted large and small amounts of this in other threads around the site.

I'll start with the night goblin Cult of the Great Cave Squig, founded by Magus Cedrug. While scavenging for dwarf treasures in the abandoned caves around Red Cloud Mountain, Cedrug fell upon an underground lake. The cave was full of glowing green stones, and at the far side there was a small opening where water from the lake fed into a small mountain river.

His discovery prompted a covert mining operation that consisted of only snotlings for quite some time. Gathering the green stones, he gained in power, leadership and greed. The mining operation grow slowly until a few snotlings wondered out of the cave to explore the mountainside. Upon hearing their hideous screams, Cedrug sent a larger group of snotlings out to investigate. They were quickly chased back into the cave by a couple of squig.

The squigs ran wild around the cavern until they met with Cedrug, with his rock collection. All of the green skins that had survived the squig onslaught stood around in disbelief (some of whom were subsequently eaten by squig) as Cedrug stared down two squig (while munching on some of his green stones). After a moment, some of the goblins got the idea they could use their crude chisels as spear tips and built plodders to coral the squig. Cedrug took the situation, and his (warp) stone induced fervor to bend the greenskins to his will further, proclaiming a prophecy of the coming of the Great Cave Squig, and founded the Cult of the Great Cave Squig.

In another part of the world...

The port of Luccini, to be precise. This is where Cristos Luciano was supervising the loading of a merchant ship when a large cargo net of spiny fish fell on top of him. Luckily, he only suffered minor cuts, the sword fish concealed within the net narrowly missed him, leaving a rather noticeable scar across his face. You see, Cristos claims the royal heritage of Locan, so he was locked into a strong rivalry with a few other princes in Luccini. While his fellows were digging him out of the mound of fish he decided to pretend to have died. He was no longer in the mood for these traps set at his doorstep. He wanted a chalange, so he laid low and plundered the catacombs of Luccini while he plotted revenge.

While in the catacombs, Cristos met Gregorios Kineater, an ogre and a treasure hunter. Cristos hired Gregorios as a bodyguard and the two bonded well. After only two years of searching, Cristos and Gregorios, with a small band of fellow treasure hunters, found their treasure.

Cristos surfaced long enough to dispatch the man who had dropped the fish on him. THen, with a small group of men, traveled north to the other city states of Tilea, to fill the ranks of his new ship. He picked up able seamen, a set of ogre brothers and a group of dwarf slayer pirates. The ogres travel with a small group of gnoblar who help to man the rigging of the ship. When aboard, the dwarfs head the cannons, and the humans help. When ashore, the ogres bring a few cannons for good measure, and the humans stay out of the way. This doesn't usually cause any problems because the dwarfs don't stay with the crew when ashore, they go in search of a righteous death or a strong brew.

Captain Lucciano convinced the dwarfs to board with inspiring tails of giants and trolls and the endless perils of the ocean itself. The ogres where easy to convince once Cristos secured his renowned halfling kitchen staff, known as George and Philip's Sweet Tooth Stewards, who were in turn convinced by promises of exotic spices and meats, as well as the endless bounty of the ocean itself. The ogres also liked the idea of having cannons.

Cristos picked the Sour Sea as his ships destination because of the perilous jouney around the southern tip of the Southlands as well as the chance to laugh in the face of the father of necromancer, Nagash. It was the navigator, Graziano Lazzaro, who pointed out that there would be some riches to reap from the volcanic mountain sides that surround the lake, something the dwarfs had no interest in.

So they set sail and have grand adventures on the sea, up and down both coasts of the Southlands. Going ashore as they pleased to restock the kitchen. Once in the Sour Sea they set to finding their treasure, be it big game or natural bounty. When the different groups return to the ship they compare what they have gathered. The dwarfs identify the stones and the ogres set the gnoblar to continue mining the valuable minerals. They set up a base camp and set sail back to Tilea to ply their wares on the open market.

Captain Lucciano becomes one of the larges sulfur suppliers around. As well as a renowned adventure guide.

So... they aren't really pirates, at least not as their day job, but they certainly do partake of their fair share of piracy.

The Parites of the Sour Sea and the Cult of the Great Cave Squig meet in the mountains around the Sour Sea. While the pirates are mining sulfur, mainly, the cult is mining the bizarrely glowing stones. They meet and fight a bit before form a shaky alliance (behind the dwarfs backs) so the cult helps mine the sulfur and the pirates supply the cult with new recruits (the gnoblar) and new technology, namely a crude form of black powder and some carpentry skills from the ship, and they keep the dwarf slayers away from the cult's "holy" ground.

And that's all for now. Let me know what you think. Any fun spin-offs or special details. I'll be adding to the story from time to time, fleshing out the details. I think there is a lot of fun to be had with a ship full of almost every race.

I just wanted to write down a few ideas and fake battle reports that I have bouncing around my head.

First, a fake battle report. Specifically the first battle the cult fought, against a small portion of a near by minor tribe, the Flying Gits. So named for their use of the goblin catapult to scout for supplies and combatants. They, and their smaller green counterparts have perfected the art of goblin gliding to a slightly less reckless sport than it is in most tribes. This is do to the fact that they live on the same mountain that the cult and the pirates are mining. This mountain has a lot of hot springs and molten core vents, so it is rather stinky. Being the case, the tribes sense of smell is completely useless for tracking purposes. So they send a brave little goblin up into the atmosphere, and if he doesn't pass out from lack of oxygen (or whatever it is they breath) then he will usually crash near something interesting or tasty.

So, the tribe launches a gobo or two and sends out a hunting party to follow them. On this particular day, the hunting party, made up of two small units of orks (arrer boyz and regular boyz) and a unit for goblins, followed their air born scout into the cult's territory.

The cultists were unaware of the approaching rivals, going about their day catching squig and collecting mushrooms and glowing rocks. As they are more often found looking through bushes and inder tree stumps, they did not see the flying goblin careening toward their general vicinity.

The arrer boyz were skulking through the woods looking for pray while the boyz were stomping through, not far away, trying to stir up some pray. The goblins were more generally rummaging through the terrain, looking for anything of use.

As the orks closed on the cult, they came to a small stream which they followed directly to the cults main cave! Only a few yards up stream they could here the sounds of excavation emanating from the cavern. The stream was very close to the opening so few orks could get a good view into the cave. That the opening was so small, none of the orks could squeeze through. This frustrated the orks, as they now stared haplessly at a small band of hooded goblins and a great herd of snotlings.

What a grand prize it would be, to return to the tribe with a huge collection of flying goblin trainees! But they could not reach the little gits, so they opted instead to shoot them. As the arrer bows sent stray arrow after stray arrow into the cave, the goblins pushed and shoved the snotling into a cohesive living shield. A few of the snotlings would mount a meager assault and be met by grabbing hands, wrenching them from the cave and into sacks.

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the stream, a group of cultists had returned from a successful squig gathering mission. Fro the edge of the clearing they spied the huddle of orks around the cave's entrance. Enraged by the sight of his devote snotlings being stolen the squig hunters boss, Ginzik Boarprodder (once a boar handler for another ork tribe), leaped onto the largest squig and the two hurtled toward the mass of bulky green muscle. At first the other squig hunters where awed by Ginzik's bravery and daring. Only moments later did they rush to his aid, pushing a wall of freshly caught squigs at the raiders.

Caught by surprise by a squig attack from behind, the orks did their best to kill the other green stuff. Many orks fell into the stream and were washed away. While others died on drier land. A few made it up the steep bank away from the squig herd and ran for their lives. These orks, upon returning to camp, said nothing of the failure, as it would lead to their further decline in status. The cult took plenty of losses as well, not least of which came when a hand full of squig broke from the herd and ravaged whatever they came across.

The goblins that had accompanied the orks had a more attune sense of danger than their fellows, and managed to stay out of the fight all together. After the fighting was over, and Ginzik was parading around with two orks skewered on his squig prodder, the band of goblins cautiously approached the cult.

After seeing their former masters reduced to squig food, they did not want to return to a life of servitude. Once a mild stand off is cleared up by the new recruits dropping their weapons, the two groups start getting acquainted. Older cultists tell the newbies about the squigs and the mines and the newbies tell tail of flight and the grandness of the view from on high. The next day, the cult leaders disperse a specially brewed potion to the entire cult to celebrate their victory and the growth of the cult, as well as to consecrate the new members.

Meanwhile, down stream, a river troll is finding a new taste for green meat. As it works it's way through it's new food supply, it begins to wonder why more orks are not floating down stream. Slowly, the idea forms in it's head to travel up stream, in search of more green meat.

Ok, that's all of the story for now. Time for some side notes.

As the cult is involved in mining warpstone for Cedrug (and Cedrugs tenancy to eat said rocks) ties them into the ratmen, rather directly. Also, due to their proximity to Cripple Peak and the lands of Nagash, there are plenty of Skaven around, and plenty of undead. I am already planning to play Cedrug as a special character, with portions of the Skaven magic rules (warpstone tokens and the bad breath spell, mostly), I also want to incorporate some kind of communication between the two groups. I figure the squigs would come in handy as far as keeping the rat population down around the cults turf, so they would have some legitimate bargaining power with the skaven (at least until the ratmen figure a way around such obstacles). Also, Cedrug's use and abuse of the warpstone puts him in much closer contact with the magical powers of the world and the waaagh. So, if the cult gets big enough, I may add a demon contingent (most likely Nurgle, as for the green skin's tendency toward fungus).

That will come in later chapters, but if anyone has toughts on how to tie these things in, I'd love to hear them. Any comments are welcome. Hope you enjoy, Dakka.

Look into the new White dwarf, on page 87, at the bottom, Mark Lifton has a Goblin Boss on a Cave Squig that looks like a Squiggoth.

I still haven't had the chance to see that, but I'm gonna try to make it happen today.

I like it, its a fun story and theres a lot of good ideas in there