This Realmbeast’s origins are lost to time, back in the Age of Myth when Sigmar is said to have captured and sealed it away in the Cloister of Ashes. It shares some similarities to the legendary skeletal hydragors which guarded the gates of Shyish, but this one is definitely a fully living flesh-and-blood creature, which breathes witchfire and consumes the souls of the dead.
When Morathi was still plotting to take Anvilgard, warbands from across Capilaria found a secret way in to the Grand Stormvault beneath Hammerhal, the Cloister of Ashes, in search of riches. For some, however, their intent was to find a way to strike at the city above. Their break-in, and subsequent conflicts in the underground vault, resulted in the release of the Charonhydra from its rune-marked cage.
The emergence of the realmbeast into the city above was devastating, and it levelled more than half of the Lavafall district before the armies of Hammerhal drove it out of the city walls and into the Crescent Sea, where it has been hiding beneath the waves, preying on passing ships.
The Charonhydra is gigantic, and a single army won’t be able to put it down. Even the God-King wasn’t able to kill it permanently, as this creatures is intimately tied to both the nature of Aqshy and Shyish. This beast can only be driven away or knocked unconscious for some time, and a coalition of forces will be required to do it. The creature not only regenerates grievous wounds, but its witchflame breath sears souls away from living creatures, charring their bodies into dust. A cloud of disembodied spirits can be seen swirling around its coiling necks, from which it feeds to replenish itself and knit its wounds back to health.
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The Charonhydra was recently crippled by the defenders of the Dawnbringer settlements of the coast of Capilaria, led by Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos. Despite many casualties, they fought off Chaos pirates who tried to dominate the realmbeast, and instead dealt a grievous wounds to its innards which will take many months or years to regenerate.
The Charonhydra has sunk to the depths of the Vitriol Sea, crawling away to safety…
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A battleplan and warscroll for running a battle with the Charonhydra’s heads can be found below. If you wish to use it in your games, you can buy the ‘Gemini&Genius velociraptor hand puppet’ heads.
The monster will stick to wading in the waters of the Vitriol Sea where it can prey on ships and other leviathans of the waters, but occasionally it will make landfall and lay waste to settlements on the coast.
Currently it is crippled and recovering, but if some were to dive deep to it and feed the monster a large enough number of souls… its recovery would be much quickened.