#warhamm

D’tano’s coughs jolt him awake. Blinking away the dancing lights in his eyes, he feels the three fingered hand of a fellow Tau help him into a seat. Taking a breath, and steadying himself against the rocking caused by nearby explosions, he looks around the devilfish he had hastily boarded before the earthquake. The hold of the vehicle was packed with black armored fire warriors, the one who helped him gives D’tano a firm nod before returning to the others gathered around a bonding knife. He had entered Death Company’s devilfish, and the full significance of the situation he was in was beginning to sink in. He needed Death Company to find Aun’Shar, but there was only one way to take command of such a unit, joining them in their fatal Ta’liserra.

Protecting this ethereal has already killed me 3 times over this week, what’s one more death?

D’tano rises to his feet and pushes to the center of the throng, grabbing the ritual blade from the Shas’ui. The leader says nothing, solemnly watching the Fireblade test his palm on the tip.

“Tau’va or death!” he shouts as he presses his palm through the blade. D’tano grunts as another hand impacts with his, hitting it further down. One by one each member stacks their hand upon the bloody stack, saying the same words. The devilfish lights turn green, and D’tano pulls the blade free. Raising it high as he moves to the opening hatch.

“Find the Ethereal Aun’Shar, our life for his!”

The cadre lets out a single HAH as the hatch slams open, and rushes out into the raging battlefield.

1. The May’nar sept remnants clash with the reinforced Grey Knights once again, Commander Novastorm leads the charge in a Ghostkeel, engaging the closest dreadknight.

2. his bodyguards decimated in the initial clash, the leader of the Grey Knights, Kaldor Drago, takes to the field. Sending psychic blasts into a pair of crisis suits, he rushes them with his legendary Titansword.

3. Fireblade D’tano leads Death Company out of their transport. the fearless breacher team unloads their pulse blasters into the grey knights, who conjure a barrier of warp energy, absorbing the assault.

4. The scattered Tau forces attempt to rally in the chaos. Firewarriors gather around Aun’Shar as a crisis suit fired suppressive fire at the advancing Kaldor Drago. The ethereal grabs a fire warriors comm suite to send out a transmission to nearby forces. “All units, the statue is what they’re guarding here! Someone scan it, it may be the key to the Calamity Equation!”

5. D’tano receives the transmission too late, as he stands alone among the melted corpses of death company. The nearby dreadknight slices cleanly through the devilfish with its nemesis greatsword, considers the lone tau for a moment, then vanishes in a ripple of warp energy. D’tano draws his ritual blade, still dripping with the blood of Death Company, and shouts a battle cry as he tackles the nearest soldier.

6. Two tetras hurtle towards the statue, the copilots beam a high powered marker light at the monument and begin a scan. “This is Fogbreaker, the statue is part of of a larger mechanism spanning the rest of the planet. According to the readings a control panel at the base is connected to energy signatures spanning the surface and interior of the planet!”

Aun’Shar wastes no time, “activate it!”

7. The tetra pilot jumps out of his vehicle as the air starts to shimmer nearby and a dreadknight rips through reality. The ancient war machine fires warp energy into the tetras, melting them into transfigured heaps. A railgun slug from the nearby hammer head pierces the stainless metal, causing the dreadknight to rush the gunship. The disembarked tetra pilot reaches the a panel at the base of the statue, and without thinking, slams his hand down on it. The ground begins to vibrate.

8. Drago and Aun’Shar exchange blows as dust kicks up and chokes the air around them.

“Impetuous child!” Kaldor spits as he swipes his sword horizontally, the roar of the warp following in its wake “do you even understand the gravity of your actions?”

Aun’Shar ducks under the rippling blade, “I don’t need to” he thrusts his spear towards the knights abdomen “but I know it’s waking something that scares even you” the tip of his spear makes a skkkkkrrrrt as it scrapes across the surface of Kaldors shield instead of finding its mark.

“To covet the Calamity Equation is to invite heresy!” Kaldors blade narrowly misses Aun’Shar’s leg “to use its power is to question the Emperors will!” With a shove from Kaldor’s shield, the ethereal is sent scrambling into the gravel.

“Sounds useful!” Aun’Shar shouts as he glances up and sees the flash of a blue search light

Authors note: I recommend listening to To the Stars by Max Richter while reading the following section

A recovery drone!

Kaldor’s eyes begin to glow as he charges warp energies

Pranng!

He stumbles back from the impact of a pulse blast. Aun’Shar whips around to see D’tano crawling forward, pulse pistol glowing hot in his hand. Aun’Shar leaps to his feet,

“My friend! You’ve survived!”

D’tano reloads his pulse pistol and takes aim, “Together, ethereal. Together we dove in to hell and together we will fight our way back.” The ethereal manages a wry smile:

Only the drone will prioritize my survival over yours…

Aun’Shar considered his opponent, then his dying comrade who would sacrifice all for him. There was what the greater good demanded, then there was what his friend needed.

Dropping his spear he turns towards Drago “not this time, my friend” dashing towards the towering foe.

Thnk!

Drago’s sword finds purchase deep in the ethereal’s chest as he’s lifted off the ground, impaled on a blade crackling with energy. Aun’Shar smiles as he begins to cough up blood

Live D’tano! Live in my place!

“NOOOOO” screams D’tano, firing his pulse pistol as the recovery drone picks him off the ground, dragging him into the air.

D’tano can do nothing but watch the ethereal begins to fall limp, as a chaotic swirl of energy swallows both combatants, which then shrinks into nothing, leaving naught but a few scorch marks in the gravel. In mere moments, it’s as if the ethereal Aun’Shar of May’nar sept never existed.

TO BE CONCLUDED

Authors note: sorry this is such a long read, I really was getting invested in the narrative. I didn’t want Aun’Shar to die, but it’s how the dice were rolled and fit the narrative pretty well!

How do you treat your characters that have died in your narrative? I want to keep using the ethereal model but I want to canonize this story somehow.

I refer to "zenithal + drybrush underpainting" as "under brushing"

It's just how I start painting my models.

I would put forth these as examples of "peak" under-brushing; you may not like it, but, this is what prime performance looks like.