MoRdheim: Nicodemus, the Cursed Pilgrim or... Gandalf, the Grey!

on February 20, 2024

Hello!

Looking through the old White Dwarf from 1999, the first time I saw this wizard I said - oh, Gandalf! from The Hobbit and LoTR books (there were no Peter Jackson movies yet).

I could have gone a little crazy with the painting, but I opted for a simple Gandalf's colors.
Fit well as the wizard wore during his long wanderings in Middle-earth, and Nicodemus of Mordheim project as such simple pilgrim robes...

Nicodemus was a promising apprentice to the mighty wizard Ganthrandir. During one of his master's many absences, Nicodemus felt an irresistible call from one of the ancient artifacts stored in the wizard's laboratory: an exotic magic lantern.

Created when the world was but young, this mighty artifact imprisoned the essence of a powerful Daemon. Many times Nicodemus' master had warned him not to touch the dangerous lantern, but the voice in the young wizard's mind was more convincing than even his mentor's: "Free me" it was saying "and 1 will grant you your heart's desire anything you want will be yours! Mine is the power to crake it so! Free me... "

Nicodemus knew something of dealing with these denizens from the Realm of Chaos and immediately asked: "Do you swear it on the name of the Power you sewer" After a moment of silence, the voice answered: 'I swear it in the name of my Master!" So the ambitious but naive young wizard was hooked and proceeded to break the runic seals of the lantern.

'Free at last!" boomed the voice of the Daemon as it emerged from its prison in a billowing, many-hued cloud. The smoke then seemed to coalesce into the vague shape of a huge humanoid creature, with a bird-like head atop a long thin neck and vast wings seemingly made of iridescent light.
The Daemon looked down on the human, and Nicodemus, controlling his fear, shouted: "The wish! You must grant me the wish as you swore it!"

The mighty Chaos being smiled enigmatically and asked: "What is your wish then, manling?" Fighting hard against all the instincts telling him to flee as far as he could from this unearthly abomination, Nicodemus revealed his wish: "I want to become the greatest wizard known to Mankind!"

A few long heartbeats later the fiery gaze of the Daemon left the wizard: "Granted!" whispered the Daemon and with one last evil chuckle disappeared back to the nether world from whence it came. Nicodemus did not perceive any immediate change and wondered how long it would take for the wish to come true. Only one thing was clear, he could not stay there anymore, because his master would certainly not be pleased by his actions.

So Nicodemus picked up his things and fled, beginning his wanderings across the Old World.
Only a few weeks after that fateful day did Nicodemus realise the Daemon's trickery.
His body was growing abnormally quickly - he was now an inch taller than the previous week and his body was getting proportionally bigger.
The greatest wizard!
The cunning Daemon had taken his wish too literally! Nicodemus had been taught to be extremely careful with the wording of anything related to wish-magic, but the sheer terror generated by the Daemon had overcome his training...

Now he was doomed to live with his mistake. From that day on, the life of Nicodemus has been an uninterrupted quest, a desperate search for a way to negate the curse of unstoppable growth.
The only remedy he has stumbled upon is a powerful potion concocted by a wise hermit he met in the World's Edge Mountains.
The potion's ability to delay the effects of the Daemon's powers has become a lifeline fur the sizeable wizard. Unfortunately for Nicodemus he requires regular infusions of wyrdstone for the potion to take effect.

Thus Nicodemus has been drawn to the greatest concentration this wondrous mineral - Mordheim, City of the Damned.
Nicodemus's skills have greatly developed during his time in the dark streets of Mordheim and he is now something of a legend among the many warbands trying for supremacy in the city.
Who knows where he will appear next and who will he join in his never ending search for the precious magic stones...