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So long, and thanks for all the Skavenade; Part 1 of 3
Topic Started: 18th November 2006 - 03:55 AM (271 Views)
Decker_cky
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Master of the Deamonic Leash of Numbers and the Armor of Updates
So long, and thanks for all the Skavenade
Part 1

This is part 1 of 3 of my final fluff for the civil war. This piece takes part over the events that happened for the turn 36 update. The second part crosses between turn 36 and 37 and the final piece will be my end turn wrap up, showing how Skritck wrraps things up, largely in Zundap.


He peered with spider-black eyes through the pitted windowplaz, looking over the warren below, picking Fathersquee's eye off the table rolling it around in his fingers and set it back down on the table, an Eshin scout comes running into the room.

“See if they've picked up any signs of Skavenblight or the Doomsphere?”

“Not yet, m'Lord, but the Skavenblight ambassador is currently in talks with all factions but the Children it seems.”

Skritck Red Fang nodded apprehensively. It was worse than he had feared, and it confirmed the information leaked by the his spies within the Brotherhood. Strange, the warlord thought to himself, how often it well after you put in the effort that a resource begins to pay itself off. Spies planted in desperate days during the wars with the Brotherhood while under Vang’s and Khornesone’s leadership now began working, yet helping bring down a new leader by aiding the faction of the leaders he once sought to bring down. Strange how these seeds had bloomed indeed.

Coming back to the matters at hand, Skritck’s attention returned to the gutter runner in his tent. “You are of the Red Claw are you not?” The spy nodded. The Red Claw were Clan Red Fang’s masters of espionage and subterfuge. Though not trained directly in the ways of Clan Eshin, they were every bit as skilled, and were fully loyal to their parent clan. It was a nice little advantage that you never worried that someone else had paid them more than you did to turn on you. At the moment, the bulk of the Red Claw were accompanying Kratkin, the Master Assassin in service of Red Fang, on his mission to scout out and sabotage the Doomsphere, if indeed the Claws had managed to rebuild it or a similar device. Apparently, his “worthy opponents” had been overestimated by the warlord, and they could not navigate the tunnels in any acceptable way to find the remains of the device in the years since the Chaos Incursion. ‘No worries,’ he thought to himself, ‘yet another reason why I’m so much better than them….I make sure those loose ends are tied up.’

As he began to scrawl a note on some parchment, Skritck continued speaking to the scout, “Make haste to the agreed rendezvous point with your peers then, make sure you deliver this note to Kratkin before he heads back towards Amsterat.” He finished the note, rolled it up and sealed it with the seal of Clan Red Fang, once the seal for the leadership of Brass Keep. But Skritck was not bitter since the in the end, he would get his due. “And I shouldn’t need to mention, this should reach Kratkin unopened. When you have delivered it, return here as quickly as possible.”

The spy took the note, then disappeared through the flaps of the tent. Scarcely a soul saw the lonesome figure disappear to the east of Red Fang’s encampment.

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Red Fang relaxed for now. There was a calm in the air. The kind that relaxes a grizzled warlord like Red Fang before marching into battle. But there was business afar that would need dealing with soon after this next series of battles. The war in the east was not faring well. Brass Keep stood tall, but it’s resources were now strained over three battlefronts. Vang was keeping all the warlords he could on the battlefield, knowing that having great generals like Red Fang and Khornesone would muster courage for the other generals. But this did not come without a cost.

Being away from his land, things were starting to go amiss. Though Amsterat remained devoutly loyal, with the delivered divine salvation fresh in the minds of their citizens, and Blood Row was now entering a period of near independence, thriving on the commerce of the warpstone railway running through it, Zundap was nearing a situation of anarchy. Soon, perhaps even in a matter of weeks, the populace would rise up. So his spies had told him, and more importantly, so his dreams had told him. He could not afford this absenteeism for much longer.

Leadership of the Children of the Warp and either Zundap or Hergig had been the goal of Red Fang upon joining up with the faction, and he had never been shy about taking power when it came about. His rise brought about fear and ire from his opponents and his allies alike, but he had never turned on his allies, nor had he let an enemy escape his grasp. (Well, I suppose he did turn on the Claws while they were allies, but first off, it was a stupid alliance built to break, and second off, their apathy and lack of activity had long left the Children to fend against the Blackhand Network, the Strongholds and then later the Brotherhood. Furthermore, they consorted with daemons on a regular basis, including once to steal Hergig from Red Fang’s grasp, and claimed their heretical powers sourced from the Horned Rat, which could not be true because the Horned Rat believed in Red Fang’s cause. He had even told the warlord this in a dream.) Anyways….he had never turned on his allies, nor had he let an enemy escape his grasp.

He had also gained both the leadership of the Children and the Lordship of Zundap. Sure, at one point he had to surrender the leadership position, but such is often the way in politics. Better that than a dagger in the back anyways, and he had gained what he needed from that role and was being distracted from his true cause by it. So he gave that up and moved to focusing on leading Zundap and Amsterat.

Unfortunately, in the same week as Skritck had re-opened Club Zundap and begun his public reign as Overlord, the Claws had to go and spoil a good thing by summoning a big mean Verminlord to unleash it’s wrath upon Amsterat. As Skritck’s home lair, this fell somewhat under the jurisdiction of Red Fang to deal with. To deal with this, Red Fang, along with Grey Seer Munch, head of the Seers Council of the Northern Underempire, devised a method to maintain devotion to the Horned Rat through magical propaganda, and sent a message of freedom to have the remaining populace rise up against their oppressors.

After Amsterat had been dealt with, Skritck once again returned to Zundap. This time, his arrival was greeted by an emissary bearing an official message from Vang Three Claws. He was commissioning all his generals to the west, to support the war on the Claws. Seeing no threat to his city at that time, he decided to follow the orders. So for months, he had now been battling through the Claws territory. Harly the place to be for one who fashions himself as a politician and a diplomat first and a general second, but sometimes the troops need to see their leader in action to believe in him, so battle he did.

Unfortunately, in all this time, the political situation in Zundap had been steadily worsening. If you ignore political opponents and the usual mishmash that causes trouble in a grandiose city like Zundap, you got to the real problems. For over a year, those Daemonic Priests had been spreading dissent, and didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast. More recently, agents of the Claws seemed to have infiltrated the city and were working to tarnish the reputation of Skritck Red Fang. And to top things off, there were marauding beastmen and orcs in the tunnels surrounding the city, which did little to comfort the populace in the absence of their Lord to organize any city defense.

So Zundap was where Skritck needed to go. But first, he had to deal with the encroaching mercenaries. And before that, he had a battle to fight in the morning. And before that, he had to sleep. So for now, he slept…

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From the southern territories of the Children of the Warp, warlord Skritck Red Fang had brought the forces of Zundap. Back home where everything started for him, the beastlord Khornesone had its many brayherds standing side to side with the Skaven. The host of the chaos lord Zorathos behind them, his packs of mounted knights unmatched by anything that had fought against them. Green-things under the command of Agbard da Orc and also the deadly creatures of the night under the command of the Nightstalker Vilepaw... Their vast forces numbered in the many thousands of warriors, all having the one single intent to destroy the Claws of the Horned One to the last. From the Blasted Undergate, they moved north and nothing could stand against them as they moved straight through Haunch Pass towards the Black Chasm.

The battle was vicious, with the juggernaut of the Children of the Warp crushing all semblance of resistance the Claw’s could muster. The combined forces of Brass Keep along with their mercenaries claimed the twin cities of the Claws. They had known the attacks from the rear would come, but they cared little. The ineffectual attacks of the purple ones would be brought down in good time, but this was war, to be won and lost in a game of resources, and these cities and breeders could be the turning point. So forward they charged.

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It was nearing the second night when the gutter runner arrived to deliver the note to Kratkin. It was, of course, still sealed when it arrived. The assassin smiled as he read it. Jilden. Again. Not really a challenge, and no time to have fun with it, but he had a soft spot for taking out the diminutive warlord again, so he would enjoy it. “Lord Red-Red Fang gave you orders then for-for now?”, he asked the gutter runner. “Yes-yes...we are to return and meet him at the battle in the twin-twin cities of the Claws.” “Then do so.” Kratkin rarely had even a fraction of the picture that Red Fang did, but his instincts told him there was much more work to do than assassinating the leader of the Brotherhood. It seemed that it was only in Hergig that he would learn the true purpose of all this.

Within minutes of receiving the notes, the entire squad’s encampment had been cleared and the assassin and gutter runners departed in their seperate directions. Only an experienced tracker could tell that they had even been there. And Kratkin of course had made sure that no unfavorable trackers were in the area during his days there.

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As the battle had raged on, Skritck was aware that the main routes of escape had been cut off by traps laid by the Claws. He had known before, but that was all part of the plan. Well worth it for the capture of two cities and a warren. Losing a few troops, wasn’t of Skritck’s concern, but it seemed losing Skritck wasn’t of concern to Vang. ‘It matters little,’ the warlord thought to himself, ‘the fool cannot dispose of me so easily, I always have a plan-plan to get out. More important duties out east-east.’

He signaled his Stormvermin guard to fall back, a unit of Clanrats took their place. This battle was all but won, and his generals could deal with the soldiers over the next few days. Behind his lines, he convened with his Stormvermin and the members of the Red Claw, who had arrived back during the fighting and were awaiting Skritck’s orders. To Barada Niktu, the captain of his Stormvermin, he spoke first. “You must take the guard to Hergig through the back tunnels. There, you are to meet up with Master Engineer Ratsputin and have him prepare one of the warp trains for travel. I will be there shortly after you.”

Next he approached the Red Claw. “We are going to visit Jilden of the Brotherhood. I have some ‘negotiations’ to do with him, but this cannot be known to any other. We leave right now for the Brotherhood encampment outside of Clawhome. He will be…‘recovering’ there.” And that was all that was necessary. Taking separate routes, the scouts and the warlord departed for Vang’s home city and the Stormvermin went to Hergig.

END OF PART 1
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Vang Three Claws
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Once Most Infamous Warlord & Head Poltroon of Brass Squeek
Nicely done Decker. I look forward to the other two bits. It's been too long since we've heard from Red Fang. :)
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