| The Prophet Emerges; Part 2 of Nemesis Crown pre-fluff | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 6th May 2007 - 11:20 PM (368 Views) | |
| Verminous Fang | 6th May 2007 - 11:20 PM Post #1 |
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The Prophet Emerges Gerwulf woke with a start. Ignoring the cup, he grabbed the pitcher of water he kept by his bed a gulped greedily from it. For the past month, he'd been having bad dreams. And these bad dreams always came true. Tonight was an oddity, for he had the same dream that he had last night, made no more palatable for having seen it a second time. The world wil be torn asunder as the nations of the world mobilize. And he had also seen the prize for which they will compete. He knew it was not something that anyone should want. Even in the dream, he could feel the menace emanating from the thing. In the dream, he could see a dwarf touch it, and that dwarf was driven mad by the thing, slaughtering his fellows. Gerwulf decided to play it safe, and not return to sleep this night, lest he be tormented by more visions. He built up the fire and put tea on to boil. He sat in his chair, staring at the flames, hoping he would burn the evil visions from his mind. As he did so, he saw his own image in the flames, a crowd surronding him and cheering his destruction. This was not a prophetic dream, as was the dream of the evil crown, but a manifestationof his own fears. Not that the knowledge of that made it any easier to calm himself down. If anyone found out about his gift, he would be handed over to the witch hunters without remorse. The recent invasion of the Empire was still fresh in people's minds, and they would not spare one man at the risk of the entire town. These thoughts played across Gerwulf's mind the rest of the night, as he sat in his favorite chair drinking tea, and only occasionally wishing it was strong drink rather than tea. ***** Verminous Fang might have laughed at the irony, had he been able to see Gerwulf. The Grey Seer was seated in a large chair (though it was far more obusively used than Gerwulf's sturdy chair) in his laboratory, sipping from a drink - the contents of which might choke Gerwulf just in the knowing. Verminous Fang, howevwer, was not trying to escape the knowledge of the future, but rather trying to capture it. Without any prophetic gift, this could only be achieved by careful consideration. He had already made extravagant plans on extracting what he needed from Gerwulf (though he didn't bother to learn the subject's name). What the Seer needed now was knowledge of how the clans would move. Verminous Fang had entagled himself in a minor clan, and now his destiny was tied to that of this clan. The point behind the potion of prophesy was simply to see if he could direct it to learn the location of warpstone deposits. Or perhaps to learn of what the other clans were doing, such that he could ambush their plans to his gain. But the only thing that the human could predict was tragedy in his village. And since the potion had taken effect, the number of occurances had risen by a great deal, nearly every day something foul affected this small village, and Verminous Fang was not sure that the potion could be excluded from the list of causes. This, in and of itself, would be worthy of investigation at other villages. The Grey Seer moved a piece of aged parchment over to him and scrawled a note to remind him to try this experiment. A love note from some nit wit in the Emperor's service was rendered inelligible with the new markings; not that his love would really need it, he won't be returning home after a recent encounter with a skaven patrol. An eshin adept interrupted the Grey Seer with a polite cough. Verminous Fang waved in his direction without looking up, and the night runner spoke into the silence. "Grey Seer, the witch hunter is coming to the man-thing village. They will take the man-thing subject." Verminous Fang took the news with unusual grace and waved off the stealthy rat. At least there were plenty of skaven around in case the subject was the cause of the accidents. ***** Gerwulf sat in a cell in the local constable's office. Someone had made a claim against him, and the witch hunters will kill him in the morning. In a way, it was a relief. He had imagined eyes on his back ever since the first dream, and now it would all come to an end. And he wouldn't have to tell anyone about the crown dream. That seemed important, as if the mere knowledge of this crown would be enough to draw madness and greed out of any normally sane person. Gerwulf paced his cell, looking out at the moon, now high in the night sky. For his last night alive, he would not dream evil dreams. He would not watch his friends getting hurt, knowing that he could not prevent it. A sound caught his attention, and he spun about searching for the noise. In the corner of the cell, a small tool erupted from the floor. He saw what could only be described as a snout poke through and sniff the air. As Gerwulf was about to scream for help, a rat the size of a man and covered in dark clothing leapt from the hole, soon to be joined by others. The one in the lead transfixed Gerwulf with his gaze, one eye red and glowing faintly in the moonlight, the other milky white and scarred. The last thing that Gerwulf remembered was a white powder hitting him in the face, and then a pleasant nothing. Gerwulf awoke from the pleasant white fog to face a fright he would not have been prepared for under any circumstance. A large white rat stared at him with malice. Horns erupted from the rat's head and curved back behnd its head. It spoke to him. "Speak-speak your vision-vision and you can live-live, yes?" How would this creature know of the dreams? Was this part of the dream, or perhaps a tactic of the witch hunters? Yes, that must be it. The witch hunters were offering him a confession, and would give a penance, then this whole thing would be over. With all this in mind, and still a bit addled from the drug, Gerwulf told him of the visions. First he told of the minor accidents and the deaths of the village. As the giant rat seemed unimpressed, he continued until he had told them everything, even the crown dream. "But I must warn you, sir witch hunter. That crown is evil. It will cause strife and death and destruction to any one who uses it. This thing cannot be used for the good of any nation. It must be destroyed!" ***** The man-thing was dragged off to the slave pits, still babbling about the evil crown. Verminous Fang had an idea. He did not doubt that the crown could hold mailice, for the dreamer had stated that it was forged of warpstone by a talented dwarf runesmith. Therefore, victory could be had not by winning the prize, but by helping others to win it. To seduce his rivals into using the crown. His plans for dominating other skaven could wait. This new object could be the answer to the prayers of Skavenblight. When the surface dwellers had destroyed each other with this crown, it would be time to set up the Over Empire! |
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Go forth my brethren, that we shall nibble at the roots of the old world! We are the rats in the shadows. We hold the blades of corruption, aimed at the very heart of the Old World. We are The Council of Thirteen. Second place in the UnderEmpire painting competition! | |
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| Bodacious | 7th May 2007 - 06:53 AM Post #2 |
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Doomwheel Fanatic
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Yay! This is a real exciting introduction to the campaign! More skavenlike and complex than the tidbits I've heard from the official lines. I can't wait to start writing my own fluff for this scenario soon as well . Cheers, Bodacious. |
My Blog - My Army Diary - Twitter: @DaanofWar - Steam: DaanofWar
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| lashific the Dominator | 7th May 2007 - 06:59 AM Post #3 |
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kicking snow since IC 134
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very well written. can't wait for more |
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"Suffer not the witch to live" Ordo Hereticus army diary | |
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| Queetik | 8th May 2007 - 05:44 AM Post #4 |
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"Master" Assassin
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Such a good story! |
| The Shadows of the Howling Heights are contemplating a return in 8th | |
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| Plagress | 8th May 2007 - 01:09 PM Post #5 |
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Clanrat
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Makes one think of the possiblites for the turn out of the story. Can't wait to find out what comes next. |
| Life is like a bolt of lightning. Short but our stories continue live on without us even when the world comes unto the end. | |
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| Morgoth | 8th May 2007 - 02:09 PM Post #6 |
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The Ancient Evil
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Now that's more like it. There is a reason for messing with that crown-thing. Great writing VF. As writen in other threads (Queetik?), the whole warpstonefinding-crownmaking could very well be an earlier skavenplot, unfortunately ruined by stupid dwarfs stupid reaction etc.... and unknown untill today(!), since failure is not something to dwell upon. Is this going to be our NC-background? |
Greetings from Morgoth Mostly Clan Eshin, occasionally Clan Husk.Proud keeper of the Poking Stick of Doom, known to many a RPG-player ![]()
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| Scruitiss | 10th May 2007 - 07:51 AM Post #7 |
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Grey Seer
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Yes yes yes!!! You do it again... I really like this introduce. Good writting job, good story line. Hope you continue soon... |
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MY SKRYRE ARMY DIARY http://underempire.net/index.php?act=ST&f=56&t=30712&st= | |
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Mostly Clan Eshin, occasionally Clan Husk.
