Friday 18 March 2016

The Ironfang Pirate Fleet, part 9: Kaptain Mogrum and The Cleavermaws



I've started re-basing the new crew: Kaptain Mogrum and the Cleavermaws!

The Cleavermaws are Oruk Pirates sailing out of Blackrocks Bay, in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts.

Da Cleavermaw itself is a hulking conglomeration of different wrecked and captured ships, cobbled together over many years from their victims and any old junk they could salvage. The prow and stern are completely mismatched and it rides the waves in an ungainly, awkward way. It looks like a dog, steers like a cow and smells like a slum. Luckily it also packs a punch like a prizefighter: it is equipped with mechanical contractions to grapple and board an enemy and vast amounts of heavy artillery.

Her commander, Kaptain Bilgewater, was quietly mad - he firmly believed he was a serving captain in a "Royal Navy", rather than in a pirate fleet, under the command of "Admiral" Kurgan Grimjaw and serving a Prince.

He ran his crew on the lines of a formal national navy: ranks, discipline, rum-rations, attacking "enemy" vessels, and writing long tiresome written reports to the Admiral. His crew knew they were really pirates but they tended to go along with him as he always managed to find a good fight - though they were never really happy about the way he ran the ship. Unlike most pirate crews the Cleavermaws weren't very interested in gold or money, just materials that will enable their continued cruising and fighting. Anything they find aboard captured "prize" vessels that isn't immediately useful was sent back to the fleet.

But, as with groups of greenskins everywhere, if they are left to their own devices for too long things turn ugly. After a particularly long cruise, with no enemy in sight, fights started to break out below decks. Orruks are used to this and consider it their right. The also consider it perfectly normal for the Boss to wade in, crack a few heads together and stop the fight before it gets too messy. But Bilgewater went berserk: He had many of the crew flogged half to death "Ta restore a bit o' order".

This wouldn't have been a disaster if he hadn't taken a further step. A step too far for most of the Cleavermaws: he emptied the rum overboard!

That night there was a secret meeting in the depths of the forward cable tiers - a group of Big'Unz (Mogrum "Da Butcha", Mr Sludga, Lost Uzzog the Shaman, and even Mr Badrot - Bilgewater's first mate - among them) got together and plotted to overthrow Kaptain Bilgewater and his cronies.

Mogrum led a mutiny against Kaptain Bilgewater and took over command of the Cleavermaw. Bilgewater, his officers and his "redcoats" were marooned on a desert island while the rest of the crew sailed away without them.

~ ~ ~

Kaptain Mogrum Da Butcha
Skull-faced mask, big floppy hat, long red coat, festooned with pistols.
He is completely obsessed with closely examining the captured papers, maps, charts, orders, logbooks and letters - he has standing orders for the crew to gather them from captured ships. He hoards them in his cabin and, along with his clerk, pours over them for hours in the night making details notes and trying to fit them together or to make sense of them as a whole.





Mr Sludga
Pirate Orc first mate - hulking lunk of a Black Orc. Armed to da Teef, bandana, massive kutlass.





Lost Uzzog
Orc Shaman in a huge hybrid wizard/pirate hat with a tall (bent) point and a very broad brim, folded up at the front with a skull & bones pin, long beard, staff, compass, spell book and scroll.





Mr Badrot the second mate



Ledger Nud the Kaptain's clerk and Skribla his Goblin assistant.







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