Beastclaw Raiders riding a Stonehorn.
The Stonehorn is a formidable beast, made of both flesh and stone. They have stone bones and can withstand most weapons. Beastclaw Ogors capture Stonehorns and ride them into battle. The Stonehorns use their horns to pulverise the enemy, and can deliver terrible blows with its crushing hooves.
Overview[]
Long before the enemy catches sight of the Beastclaw Raiders they will hear the steady thunder created by the rampaging Stonehorns. Huge monsters of tangled fur and granite horns, they crush the landscape underfoot, each earth-shaking stride sending another shock wave rippling out. The size of these beasts alone does not account for this effect, even though each one is twice the height of an ogor at its shoulder. Stonehorns’ skeletons and tusks are made from rock and gemstone. This makes them immensely tough, and when they barrel into the fray, few things can stop their assaults. A Stonehorn on the charge is a boulder wrapped in muscle and hurled down from a mountaintop. Anything unfortunate enough to be caught in its path is quickly turned into shattered bone and pulverised flesh, and then driven deep into the torn ground.
Beastclaw Raiders long ago learned to ride these enormous monsters, for few things can survive the rigours of the Alfrostuns’ nomadic life like a Stonehorn. They make excellent beasts of burden, and a single Stonehorn can carry the weapons and armour of a dozen ogors on its back. The strength that lets the beast carry even pairs of riders for leagues on end also allows it to smash down castle walls and barge through iron gates. Many are the keeps and Dreadholds reduced to rubble by a rampaging Stonehorn charge, and when it stands over the ruins, the beast feeds upon the remains. For Stonehorns do not eat meat like most living things, instead feasting on minerals, metals and rare stones. These heavy banquets are what strengthen and nourish the beasts’ stone skeletons, and it is not uncommon to see a Stonehorn’s tusks and bones gradually take on the hues of its meals.
Ogors often augment their mounts with scavenged bits of metal. These are hammered into different parts of the beast’s body. Fangs are capped with steel, plates are fixed over the monster’s vulnerable eyes and blades are fixed to tusks. Some of these additions are for show but most make the Stonehorn more deadly. In truth, though, the beasts need little in the way of armour, for there are few things that can do them any real harm. Even if a Stonehorn’s skin is shorn away, the hard mineral skeleton beneath remains unharmed. The price for this hardiness, however, is that if the beast stands still for too long its joints might fuse together as its rock bones grow. So, like their masters, the Stonehorns are forever moving onward. Those that do shudder to a halt become statues, their flesh turning to stone like their skeletons, until an ogor chips it away and grants them savage life once more.
Sources[]
- Games Workshop - Frostlord on Stonehorn
- Frostlord on Stonehorn Warscroll
- Destruction Battletome: Beastclaw Raiders.
- pg. 38