It’s time to break out your best dungeon-crawling gear again, because we’re heading back into the gloom with Warhammer Quest: Darkwater.
Announced via cryptic teaser that showed off the box art with little else, Warhammer Quest: Darkwater is set in the Age of Sigmar universe and promises “grim adventure in the ruins of the Mortal Realms.” Although publisher Games Workshop hasn’t revealed much else about this latest entry in the long-running series, we know it’ll take us to the “Jade Abbey” in an adventure to “cleanse the corruption” at its heart. In other words, it seems to have a lot in common with the last Warhammer Quest: Cursed City – a dungeon-crawling RPG that channelled some of the best board games into a properly gothic romp.
Despite not getting much to work with in this preview, there’s already a lot we can glean from it anyway. For starters, that “corruption” seems to come courtesy of the Chaos god Nurgle (an eldritch horror responsible for disease and decay) due to the presence of his warriors in the background. Thoroughly gross pustules can also be seen on pillars, which is a beloved decorating hack of Nurgle’s.
Nurgle-tainted Beastmen are also joining the party, with their troops dominating much of the artwork. This is pretty interesting in itself, because this long-running faction has been phased out of the Age of Sigmar wargame in favor of their appearance in the classic Old World system. With that in mind, Warhammer Quest: Darkwater may give us the first new Beastmen miniatures we’ve had for a while (that weren’t the occasional Old World character, anyway).
The thing that struck me most was the very old-school line-up of heroes, though. There are a couple of ostentatious knights from the Cities of Sigmar who would fit in very nicely with an ’80s fantasy book cover, flanked by a hooded, retro dwarf with two axes in hand and a water-bending sorcerer who’s wearing robes that are thoroughly impractical for a flooded dungeon. If you told me this party came from the much more classical Warhammer: The Old World, I’d believe you.
If you’re new to the franchise, Warhammer Quest is a beloved swords-and-sorcery dungeon-crawler that’s been going strong for 30 years. These usually take place in fantasy settings, but have also taken a trip to space with Warhammer 40,000 spin-offs.
There’s no word on when we’ll find out more about Warhammer Quest: Darkwater, but we should apparently expect details soon.
Story developing…