Court of the Briar Queen.

Regally, the Briar Queen seemed to sit upon a throne carved from cold gravestones, overlooking the mausoleum which served her as a ghastly court. Dust moved through the shafts of light from the portholes built into the once luxurious funeral home, none of the Nighthaunt present paid any attention to it.

Harridans waited her attention paitently as only the dead could. They looked around with their dead eyes at a world full of spirits.

At the queen's side was her faithful servent and executioner, Liekeron. He had been in service to his queen since before his mortal death, a champion in life, now in death that service continued. 

He raised a spectral hand and pointed down the court.

"A spirit approaches my queen" a dry whisper eminated from underneath his hood.

Immediately the Harridans moved to block the path. Whilst it was true that spirits could pass through physical blockades, their spectral bretheren were another matter entirely.

Hissing with the impudentcy of this interloper, the Harridans raised their scythe arms and the leader moved forwards.

"State your business here wraith!" She hissed.

"I bring word for  the Briar Queen from Mistress Amondrizel" the wraith replied, it's own voice a cracked dry whisper, not unlike Liekerons' own.

The Briar Queen motioned for the messenger to approach her throne.

"Mistress Amondrizel sends word that Vornos Ravenhold has been defeated at the Battle of Iron Ridge however his spectral form has resurfaced in Shyish and he gathers forces to attempt to overthrow the Mortarch of Grief. Mistress Amondrizel has the proof you will need to confront him, however that will only be possible after defeating him in battle and weakening his forces so" the messenger relayed.

"Overthrow the Mortarch? Impossible"

"Lord Nagash would stop such upstart action surely?"

"My Queen, we should march against him".

The tumult of whispering dead voices was the equivalent of an uproar in that deathly quiet space.

The light seemed to dim even further to almost blackness around the throne as the Queen contemplated her actions.

"Silence!" She screeched, "It is unthinkable that the Mortarch could be overthrown, but we should not count it as an impossibility. My upstart brother has long sought to control his destiny away from Lord Nagash and the Mortarch of Grief".

The spectre's floated in the darkness, silent as the grave awaiting her orders.

"Liekeron, yes we should march against him, raise my troops. Crone Agathia, you will rouse as many of your Harridan sisters as you can to join us".

"My lady, do you have any message to send back to Mistress Amondrizel?" The messenger asked.

"Yes actually, tell her to send word of where he is planning to strike, if possible she is to sabotage his forces without being caught and when the time comes, she is to betray my brother on the field".

"As you wish" and the messenger melted away into the darkness as the other spirits began moving away upon their assigned tasks.

The Briar Queen sat back down in the darkness contemplating the times ahead. Especially the time when she would face her own long dead brother in battle.

*****

For a while now I've been collecting the partwork magazine Mortal Realms.

This is the Age of Sigmar version of the 40k Conquest weekly magazine which was put out by the same publisher.

One of the big draws to this magazine is the fact that you often get models included with the £7.99 price tag. 

This post is a great example, The Briar Queen set is from the Shadespire game, but comes with rules for AoS, and retails for around £20. 

Major discount!

So in the center is the Briar Queen herself.

I wanted to make her stand out by giving her the white robe rather then black like her attendents.

My favourite is the guy with the candle holder.

Again from Mortal Realms are these five Dreadscythe Harridans, I have another five on sprue.

I painted these in the same scheme as the Briar Queen, with the white robes. 

These were her personal guard in life and now continue the duty in death.

Whilst the "official" GW fluff lists these as being former healers and nurses, I wanted a more courtly aspect to this group, especially as they are to challenge my previously painted Nighthaunt force.

Finally, is Liekeron the Executioner:

This was a birthday present last year, and I've finally gotten round to finishing him off. 

An easy and enjoyable painting project, he came together in a couple of hours.

He's the personal champion of the Briar Queen, set to seek out and kill enemy champions who threaten the Queen herself.

I'm going to continue building this small force up to roughly the same level as the current Nighthaunt army I previously finished, in order to play a few games detailing the strife of the ghostly undead after they start competing for their Mortarchs' favour.

In hobby news, this little lot crosses off three boxes on my first Bingo grid.

Namely,

• A Hero or Character, the Briar Queen.
• A Hero or Character, Liekeron the Executioner.
• A unit of 2+ model's, the Dreadscythe Harridans.

Bumping me to thirty points and the majority of the first column on the grid complete.

This lot also gives me 17 points to begin with on the painting challenge with Duncan which isn't a bad start (it would have been 34 bit I'd started painting these before the challenge began, so they're all at half points).

I'm going to add some Chainrasps soon as part of her build up of forces, which will add a fourth box on that column.

Until next time...

 - Lewis