Wrong Way Infernal Hunter

Long before the warriors of Infernal Crusader Houses were damned, their estates employed master foresters who guarded hunting grounds, pursued poachers and deserters, and prepared elaborate chases for the pleasure of their lords. When Infernal Crusader Houses carried their banners beyond the borders of the mortal world, some of these retainers followed them into damnation. There, amid wildernesses that had never known sunlight, their former office became something far more exalted and terrible. They ceased to hunt for sport and began to pursue creatures whose deaths might reveal the hidden designs of Hell itself.

The title Wrong Way Infernal Hunter comes from the forbidden roads these solitary huntsmen choose to follow. The maps of Hell are filled with routes marked as false, broken, or impossible: paths that lengthen as one walks them, ruined bridges leading to realms that no longer exist, and ancient roads that carry travellers away from their destination while somehow drawing them closer to their fate. Infernal armies avoid such places, but the Wrong Way Infernal Hunters deliberately seek them out. They understand that the straight road is watched, the open gate is guarded, and the path declared useless may reach places inaccessible by any honest direction.

Wrong Way Infernal Hunters wander far beyond the territories conquered by Infernal Crusader Houses. They cross petrified forests, drowned battlefields, and the remains of dominions that vanished before the first Infernal Crown was forged. They navigate by scars in the earth, by the migrations of eyeless beasts, and by subtle currents of corruption that pass unnoticed beneath the feet of lesser travellers. Along these routes stand crumbling sanctuaries dedicated to powers whose names have been erased even from forbidden scripture. Before such places, the hunters leave trophies cut from exceptional prey and receive dreams that they interpret as warnings, commands, or promises.

Their initiation requires the willing sacrifice of the left arm that once steadied a hunting crossbow. Its flesh is stripped away and rebuilt within a frame of black iron, infernal horn, and preserved sinew taken from a beast slain by the initiate alone. When awakened, the grotesque limb unfolds into a heavy crossbow fused directly to the bearer’s bones. Its curved arms are formed from horn and metal, while bundles of unnatural sinew draw the string without the need for a crank or lever. The bolts grow within the hunter’s own body as long, dark spines, each pulled wet from the flesh before being placed upon the stock.

A victim struck by one of these bolts does not merely bleed. Its shadow becomes marked, allowing the Wrong Way Infernal Hunter to follow it through smoke, darkness, fortified walls, and even across weakened boundaries between Earth and Hell. Some bolts are prepared with fragments of beasts slain in the infernal wilderness, causing the wounds they inflict to fill the victim with foreign instincts. Those struck may flee from sounds no one else can hear, attack their own companions in blind terror, or wander willingly toward the hunter waiting beyond the battlefield.

Wrong Way Infernal Hunters do not answer every summons immediately, and lesser commands may be ignored until the pursuit at hand has ended. Their freedom, however, is not absolute. Each remains bound to Infernal Crusader Houses by an oath of fealty sworn long before damnation. When a rightful lord invokes that ancient vow, even the most sacred hunt must be abandoned. The hunter returns beneath the banners of Infernal Crusader Houses and fights openly beside the warriors of his lord, turning his monstrous crossbow against whatever quarry he has been ordered to bring down. Such occasions are rare, but they prove that beneath his solitude and wilful disobedience, the oldest loyalty remains unbroken.

On the battlefields of Earth, a Wrong Way Infernal Hunter may range ahead of the main force, vanish into the ruins surrounding its advance, or take his appointed place among the warriors of Infernal Crusader Houses. He follows roads unseen by ordinary soldiers until he reaches the ground where his quarry must eventually appear. Officers vanish from guarded dugouts, relic bearers are torn from marching columns, and enemy prophets are found pinned to walls by black crossbow bolts. Some victims are killed, while others are bound in iron hunting cords and delivered alive to the waiting Master Occultists. To the Wrong Way Infernal Hunter, war is merely another wilderness, armies are frightened herds, and every order is the beginning of a new pursuit.

My lord names the quarry. My oath finds the wrong road to its throat

🎨 A dream for painters and grimdark collectors

One model – “Wrong Way Infernal Hunter (Court Hunter)”, designed by Wargames Crew
The set include:
– Crossbow
– Sword
– Bolts

Total size 55mm
Base size is 32mm

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