Forbidden Psalm Game 2: My Heart Has Joined the Thousand
Posted: 30. 09. 2022.
We are returning for the second scenario in our campaign of Forbidden Psalm: a tabletop miniature wargame by Kevin Rahman, based on TTRPG Mörk Borg.
We’re still following two rival warbands: the Cannibals led by the vicious slaughterer Janos, and the Undeadites led by mummified barbarian Queen Heldu. Both are working for Vriprix, a mad wizard who lives in a twisted castle in the woods and never shows his face. If you missed the first battle report, you can catch up on your reading here: GAME ONE: THE MAD WIZARD’S TEA.
In short, the Cannibals had a fantastic first game picking mushrooms - earning much gold, some experience, and got no permanent injuries. The Undeadites, on the other hand, lost one of their number. They hired a replacement for game two: Winter the Night Child, an undead sorceress.
The warband had found a magic scroll while looking for shrooms, so it made sense to hire someone specialized in casting. We selected the flaw and feat to fit the character: can't wear armour and can use an action to attempt to scare an enemy. However, we rolled for the scrolls to get random ones. And we ended up with a double! The roll gave us another Bones, Them Damn Bones unclean scroll. Scrolls cannot be sold, so it's in the stash for now... The other spell she rolled was Golden Flare, which can blind enemies.
Winter pretty squishy, so Queen Heldu should keep her in the back, summoning skeletons and glaring menacingly. The summoned skeletons are not controlled by the player, so if she manages to spam a few there will be mayhem and it could potentially backfire. Sounds like fun!
I dove into my bits box to put together a mini for the character. It started from Undead Lord with Scythe from Ral Partha. I replaced the arms with Chainrasp arms from the current Warhammer range. The right hand originally held a mace, but I turned it into a wand with a pointing skeleton hand left over from Cursed City.

For their second mission, the warbands were sent to a desolate field, where Animal Cultists gather and perform their strange dances. Vriprix wants them gone before their rituals bring about the apocalypse. He’ll pay a gold piece for each little furry carcass.
This scenario requires a number of monster minis: at least ten Animal Cultists, at least two Morka Porka, and potentially others. I cast rats and a rabbit as my animal cultists. Four of them need to carry treasure in the scenario, and I used rat swarms from GW’s Cursed City to represent those and make them easy to tell apart. All the others were rat swarms from Anvil Industries. The rabbit is from Wyrd Miniatures.
Making the Morka Porka
My three Morka Porka were made from toys, as described below:

DEPLOYMENT
As per scenario rules, ten Animal Cultists were placed on a 2’x2’ board. This mission’s terrain comprised of rustic fences and a couple of trees, to represent a field. There is an option to roll for weather, which gives extra rules to the scenario. This time we rolled, and got 7. Bleak Sun - meaning all models automatically pass death saves. This was very welcome, as it meant it would be much more difficult to permanently lose a warband member.
The warbands deployed on opposite sides, each splitting into three groups. The aim was to attack the treasure-bearing cultists first for the precious loot, and then to keep slaying them to keep their numbers down. Cultists would try to come together and perform rituals, which summons more monsters and potentially the end of the world if ten of them manage to group at once. Of course, giving a hard time to the rival warband when chance presents itself is always on the menu.

TURN ONE
The first turn’s initiative roll was won by the Undeadites (and this trend will continue all until the final turn). Queen Heldu took out a treasure-bearing cultist, but it struck back for two thirds of her health. Ouch! Seeing that, Artanaro the Sly aims his crossbow at the wounded enemy boss - but misses the shot. Filth the Gore-hound skips towards the treasure cultist dropped, and finds another Unclean Scroll: Breath of the Undying. Maag’s Angry flaw gives him no choice but to attack. He takes out a cultist, which drops a treasure. Corpse Paint crits another cultist with treasure. Abathur picks up the treasure Maag’s victim and rolls the ‘human skull’ result. It’s only worth a single gold piece, so he uses the Greed omen to re-roll. His greed gets punished, as the new roll gives him the pretty much worthless ‘pile of bones’. Looks like that cultist was lugging around a human skeleton... Waltz makes the same move on the treasure in his reach. Also finds a skull, and also re-rolls with Greed. His result is much better: four gold coins. Janos attacks the last treasure-bearing cultist and misses. Turns it into a hit with Fate omen and kills the rats. Winter attempts to cast her blinding spell on Janos, but fails. Finally, Dugnutt searches the final treasure and finds a relic (Boots of Unkindness) and a scrap of paper with a verse from the Forbidden Psalm. If they somehow find four more of those verses, they will be able to sell them to Vriprix and retire with a thousand gold coins. Not likely, though.
At the end of the turn, three new cultists appear.

TURN TWO
Heldu attacks a newcomer cultist and misses. Gets one damage for her trouble. Janos kills another cultist. Winter successfully casts the spell to summon a Skeleton! It comes out of the ground at Janos’ feet. Artanaro turns his attention to a nearby cultist, and smashes its little skull with his club. Seeing his mistress is in trouble, Filth reads the scroll he had found and casts a choking spell on the cultist in combat with Heldu. It’s a crit, looks like he’s a natural. Corpse Paint, Waltz, and Abathur each take out a cultist. Maag misses with his attack. In the Monster Phase, the summoned Skeleton attacks Janos, but the Cannibal’s counterattack one-shots it into dust. The cultist cursed by Filth chokes to death. Two new cultists appear.



TURN THREE
Heldu tries again to kill a cultist, but does only a single point of damage. Janos spots a pair of cultists doing a ritual, so he shambles over to stop that nonsense next turn. Dugnutt later joins him to back him up in the fight. Dutiful Filth casts his spell on the new cultist Heldu is struggling with, and barely succeeds. Artanaro reloads his crossbow and takes another shot at Heldu (she’s at one HP at this point). But he misses again... Winter summons a new skeleton, near Artanaro to stop his nasty shooting attacks. Corpse Paint tries to poke Maag in the back while he’s occupied with a cultist, but has no luck.
In the Monster phase, blows are traded between warband members and monsters, but mostly without damage. The cursed cultist chokes to death. No new cultists appear this turn.
TURN FOUR
A pair of Morka Porka arrive, drawn by the scent of blood. One is right by the wounded Queen Heldu, so Filth pulls another rescue move. Runs up to the swine and feeds it his flesh. Using the Confidence omen to make sure it’s a success, Filth tames the Morka Porka and is now able to ride it to battle (gets a +3 inch move boost and the d8 Gore attack, making Filth an actual threat - but he permanently loses a limb). It also puts the Queen out of danger of becoming a snack for the pig.
Artanaro dispatches the pesky skeleton. Furious at him for incessant assassination attempts, Heldu lunges at him with her sword and punishes him with her maximum damage. Artanaro’s armour saves him from death. He also fumbles and would have dropped his weapon but the Banality omen saves him from that disgrace. Janos, Abatur, and Maag kill another cultist each. Corpse Paint does another poke at Maag, and this time crits. Maag is not looking good, fails morale test but saves it with an omen. Dugnutt leaves the battlefield with his loot, not feeling safe enough any more. The skeleton and cultist in combat with Janos decide to attack each other and miss both times. The Morka Porka gores Maag, and he is now downed.
Three new cultists appear.


TURN FIVE
Queen Heldu tries to finish off Artanaro. She fumbles but saves that with an omen. She is having a really shitty day. Artanaro misses his counter-attack. Suddenly scared for his life, he disengages and flees towards the nearest table edge. But he’s pretty slow so he doesn’t get far. Pig-rider Filth gallops over the fence and cuts him off. They exchange blows, and both end up downed after their scrap.
Corpse Paint now pokes at the Morka Porka hoping for a trophy, and scores another crit. This doesn’t kill the animal, but it scares it off the table. Waltz robs the helpless Maag of his possessions. Janos fights the skeleton, and they both crit. For Janos that’s just a flesh wound, but the skeleton shatters in an explosion of bone shards. Abathur kills another cultist.
In the monster phase, a cultist attacks Janos and dies. Two more cultists appear.



TURN SIX
For once, the Cannibals get the initiative. But they don’t have much to do with it at this point. Janos attempts to harvest the skeleton’s corpse for delicious marrow, but a bone shard gets stuck in his throat and he stumbles away retching and spitting. Winter and Abathur try to do the same on the other two skeleton corpses, likewise with no success. But they don’t roll poorly like Janos. Queen Heldu steals everything from Artanaro’s incapacitated body. Should have probably killed him instead.

AFTERMATH
This time the Undeadites had better success, with the exception of Queen Heldu’s combat blunders (a bunch of very poor rolls). They sold four animal cultists and some gear they stole from the Cannibals to Vriprix, earning a total of 20 gold this game. Their deeds earned them 11 XP. Filth traded his hand for a piggy mount, got the Weak injury from being downed, but received the Tough As Nails feat for 5XP. Queen Heldu spent 10XP to get +1 Toughness and the Mind over Matter feat. She and Filth also donned the stolen light armour, giving them both a bit of extra protection. The Breath of the Undying scroll was passed on to Winter.
The Cannibals had a mediocre time. They earned some gold but ended up spending more on replacing equipment the Undeadites stole. They killed a lot of monsters, though - and got a ton of XP. They spent some to heal Artanaro’s disease he contracted when the pig bit him, to give Janos the Shield Bash feat for extra damage, to give Dugnutt +1 strength, and to re-roll Maag’s flaw. This near death experience cured him of his constant anger, but he became weak-bodied and lost half oh his left arm to the hungry Morka Porka. He’s very lucky the Undeadites didn’t witness what he did to Torvuul last game. They would have cut him to bits for sure, had they known.
I still thoroughly enjoy the game. I’m very much looking forward to making the consequences of this encounter show on the models for the next chapter - it’s one of the reasons campaigns are such fun. There is also a developing history between the characters that may influence how they treat each other in the future.

When you play a campaign, do you convert models between games to match the new equipment, injuries and abilities they receive?
If you play Forbidden Psalm, what models did you use for Animal Cultists and Morka Porka?
Did your warband manage to tame a pig?
Let me know in the comments.
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Comments
Thank Bobby! A bunch of doggo cultists, you say - interesting choice.
Thanks for the great report. Lovely, inspirational mini’s and terrain and lovely touch to add markings and names to the pictures.
I’m playing Mordheim myself, but will try to convince my gaming group to give Forbidden Psalm a try.
I’d probably use villagers as cultists and any animal (I happen to have painted up some sheep and cows) for MorkaPorka.
Thank you D28! Your group can easily use their existing Mordheim figures for this, so that’s a good argument for persuasion.
Great battle report! I’ve got some Warlord farm animals plus some owls from Oakbound’s The Woods to use as animal cultists, but I’m on the look out for Morkaporkas, having only so far got one 3d printed boar (that I don’t really like). I think I might try painting up some pig toys if I can find ones the right size.
Looking forward to seeing how Filth looks now he’s missing a limb!
Thanks Ric!
I have used some magic the gathering minis for most of my enemies . There was an MTG table top game that came with alot of minis. There are three fire hounds that have worked great as the morka porka. I’m in the works of converting more for the different scenarios.
Thaks for sharing Alex!
Loving how these battle reps are developing, and the bad blood brewing between the two parties!
I’m still working on the minis for the first scenario, but I may just end up using minis I got from Dungeons & Doggies as the cultist.
By Bobby on 2022 10 02