Blacktalon is an Age of Sigmar show, focusing on Stormcast Eternals, specifically and unsurprisingly on Neave Blacktalon. The second episode just got released, and I've eagerly watched it twice. This review contains spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't seen the episode yet.
A stormvault is a magical sanctuary built by Sigmar to hold powerful artefacts. They're the Age of Sigmar version of a dungeon in Pathfinder or D&D. In this episode, it's discovered that a powerful vampire named Kaelena has been living in a Stormvault. She's been sending out her minions to harvest humans from the surrounding towns.
Kaelena was once a warrior of the Old World. When Sigmar offered to Forge her into a Stormcast Eternal, she refused and instead made a deal with Nagash, I assume, for eternal life as a Soulblight.
There are lots of clever storytelling techniques used in this episode, which spices up the setup. There are some flashbacks and non-linear scenes that don't just add to the pacing of the show, but they help disguise some of the undercover characters. You don't anticipate that one of the peasants being hauled into Castle Grayskull could be a Stormcast Eternal, because they haven't even left Azyr yet... OR HAVEN'T THEY?
Eventually the story settles in to what's basically a dungeoncrawl straight out of Blackstone Fortress or maybe Cursed City. There are a bunch of nice and straight-forward battles against low-level skeletons, until the vampire overlord awakens the guardians of the vault. Suddenly, the stakes escalate, with one Stormcast Eternal (Kendrick I think is his name? I couldn't find any information about him on the Internet) battling Kaelena in one realm and the other Blacktalons staving off, well, the wrath of a Stormvault invaded (notably a big old treelord).
This was a fun episode, although I think I like more traps and gimmicks in my dungeon crawls. The action in this one was a little underwhelming for me, and actually I blame the animation. Having seen Hammer & Bolter, I see how cheap animation tricks can be used to effectively create genuinely exciting action sequences. And I don't feel the animation in Blacktalon is quite as dynamic and lively as it was in Hammer & Bolter.
But the atmosphere remains the strongest part of this series. The Mortal Realms are alive and vivid and mysterious. I absolutely want to read more about it, I want the RPG sourcebook, I'm eager for more.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.