What Is This Tebbi and Blackclaw Thing All About?

Well....

Tebbi and Blackclaw were created soon after I got my Eater of the Dead warband together for the WarGods Ankhara City of the Dead World Campaign. Shefdu Sootootma, the most awesome Dark Harbinger ever, came first with some of his now commonly known fluff (his name translates roughly as "Scroll Traveller" from the gutter hieroglyphics I use). There were then three Crypt Lords to name and fluff out. There was the Basti running forward with a big sword in both hands over his head, the mummy chick with scroll and polearm, and a Reaper figure that looked kinda mummy-ish with a bow.

The female got her fluff and name first (Senshet), but we won't get into her here (at least not for a while yet). Next was the Basti, I looked at the painted Crypt Lord and thought "well he's kinda got black hair" and went with Blackclaw because Basti have claws and he had black hair- BRILLIANT! And finally the Reaper dude with a bow, it was actually the first of the 3 Crypt Lords to be painted (I think) and I thought he was sooo cool at the time (he's still cool). I'm not sure where the name Tebbi came from- I think I wanted something that sounded different from the other two so Tebbi came from that search. "The Archer" simply came from the fact that he had a bow so he was obviously an archer- BRILLIANT AGAIN!

The fluff for Tebbi and Blackclaw came together from the idea that I like to carry through most of my mummies (I'm weird that way). They were not always undead bad guys, right? Before they were wrenched into unlife to serve the Eater of the Dead they had actual lives, adventures, and fashion sense. Plus, unless there was a massive battle where whole units were killed and mummified and entombed in the same place, mummy warriors should have different 'uniforms' because that makes more sense than whole units of mummies all matchy-matchy - but that's just my take on it.

Since most of Shefdu's warband came from the necropolis outside of some made up little town someplace in the middle of nowhere there had to be an interesting story behind how Tebbi and Blackclaw ended up dead there. So I thought about it a bit having recently seen "Butch and Sundance" on AMC. That got the gears turning-  these two were some kind of outlaws back in their living days. That led to lots of fun thoughts about this Basti with a sword (instead of a bow) and this Asar with a bow (better than the Basti with it) performing crimes and such across Ægyptus. Eventually they got too ambitious and tried to rob a well-guarded temple in this little town in the middle of nowhere. That's how they bought the farm, but it was more complicated than that (as we'll hopefully someday find out)....

The Ankhara Campaign let Tebbi and Blackclaw have some interesting adventures as evil mummy heroes (I think it was Blackclaw who managed to steal a chariot in battle once). Unfortunately both of them were cut down during the Rise of Khepri, so no more undead adventures for them were possible. Sad. That meant the only legitimate way to "continue" their adventures was to go back to when they were alive and figure out how they got to that little town and met their ends- sort of a prequel.

That's where this adventurous blog comes in.

I've figured out roughly what happened from when they met in Buto to when they died storming the Temple of Amun in Oprinchot, the bits between these major events are up for grabs

During the latest World Campaign (Quest for the Golden Fleece) before GenCon 2010 I got to playtest the WarGods skirmish rules and help run the skirmish games at GenCon. It clicked that skirmish is perfect for a bunch of scenarios starring Tebbi and Blackclaw and some of their recurring nemeses. So the rough outlines I had for some scenarios for our anti-heroes now have an outlet. I beg for feedback on the scenarios if you play them or not. Hopefully people's results of the battles will help to move the overall story of Tebbi and Blackclaw in interesting directions....

Our (Anti-) heroes

Tebbi the Archer is a standard Asar Archer figure with a few added bits. He's got a big magical ram horn on his belt and some crossed bones at his feet for some spell or something.

He's mainly converted with the paintjob. The arrow he's grabbing from his quiver is a specialred arrow (magic with some added damage or something). There are some

Blackclaw is the Basti Hero figure by Todd Harris with a bag of loot added to his base and the javelin pack option for his back.

The Tebbi & Blackclaw Intro Text

Long before they were Crypt Lords in the warband of the eminent Tethru Dark Harbinger Shefdu Sootootma, the rogues Tebbi the Archer and Blackclaw were somewhat well-known in their own right. Their partnership lasted for many years until their failed assault on the Temple of Amun at Oprinchot.

Tebbi the Archer was a Dispossessed Asar who had been part of an Isis Harbinger's Warband. When his Harbinger was slain in battle Tebbi took to wandering and eventually fell in with a Witch Coven in the far South of Ægyptus. It is unclear how or why he left the coven, but he became known as a bow-for-hire among the less civilized circles of Ægyptian society. It was while Tebbi was attempting to perform a 'management downsizing' for the Empty Palm (an underground 'mercantile organization') that he met Blackclaw...

Blackclaw was a Basti thief and con-man in Pharos for quite some time. He became unfortunately well-known in the city after pulling off a scheme to gain financial backers for an overseas expedition to 'a land drenched in gold.' When the expedition was discovered to consist of a derelict fishing boat and a blind Sebeki, Blackclaw decided it was best to leave Pharos. One of the irate backers caught up with Blackclaw in Buto. Fortunately for Blackclaw the irate backer was the target of Tebbi's downsizing job.

The two rogues joined forces soon after this incident and began a long career of criminal (and occasionally civic-minded) exploits. Their demise and eventual resurrection led to even more exploits, but these were of a very darker sort...