The most common tales revolving around Richter Kreugar's tragic curse tell of a young mercenary captain, proud, talented and ruthless. He hired out his services freely, uncaring who he fought for as long as the price was right. Centuries ago in the history of the Old World, Richter was said to have allied with a powerful Necromancer, aiding him in his diabolical campaign against the Empire, terrorising the heavily forested area around Wolfenburg.

Within the leather-bound annals of the Historiata Imperiatus, it is said that the Empire army of Wolfenburg was suffering horrendous casualties in a war of attrition that they could not hope to win.

However, they struggled on regardless and began to wear down the Necromancer, taking the offensive and pushing him deeper into the forest, denying him the time needed to strengthen his Undead forces.

Seeing the Necromancer faltering, Richter accepted the bribes of an Empire agent, the calculating young mercenary seeing a chance to make some easy money and be on the winning side. As the titanic battle hung in the balance, Richter played his hand, striking out at the foul Necromancer, who fell beneath his blade. However, with his dying breath the unholy sorcerer gasped a curse that was to be the eternal undoing of the enterprising sell-sword.

Before his horrified eyes, Richter's skin began to wither and within moments he collapsed to the ground, a lifeless pile of bones and armour. The day was won for the Empire forces, and the tale of Richter's betrayal may well have been forgotten, had his death not been accompanied by a tragic twist.

The very next night, Richter rose from the ground. He stared at the world with hollow eyes, and all he surveyed appeared in shades of grey. In anguish and despair, Richter saw his own skeletal limbs, and the full horror of the Necromancer's incantation began to dawn on him.

And so it is that Richter stalks the Old World and beyond. Hundreds of years since his death he is still seeking oblivion and peace, yet he is never able to achieve his final rest. Countless times he has been cut down, only to awake again the following night to his never-ending, hellish torment. A terrible element of the curse is evoked each time he slays an enemy, for his defeated foes rise immediately to serve him in undeath, slaves to his will. He travels the world, living out a tragic parody of his former mercenary career, fighting wherever he finds battle. His anger and despair momentarily lost in the bloodshed, he continues his doomed existence in the desperate hope that one time when his skeletal body is slain, he will finally know the relief of true death.

The rules for the cursed company, and details of how to include them in your Warhammer army, can be found here [Download PDF - 95.2 Kb].

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Next: Designing the Cursed Company.