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A Gathering of Forces Part 1; More Nemesis Crown Pre-Fluff
Topic Started: 21st May 2007 - 02:10 AM (301 Views)
Verminous Fang
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A Gathering of Forces

The cool night air and starry sky felt alien to Verminous Fang, who was accostumed to the close confines of the tunnels. One could imagine a giant flying beast stalking up behind you out here. In fact, many of the clanrats that the Grey Seer had brought with him cowered under the oppressive openness of the surface. Only the densely packed trees kept the skaven from bolting in terror. Except for the Eshin forces, who spent a great deal of their time on the surface, tracking their targets and gathering their intelligence. A few of the night runners were even searching the area intently, checking in each bush, lifting rock and sniffing under them as if the crown would just have been left behind. Verminous Fang glanced at their leader, who, by the looks of things, was making a mental list of the candidates that would not see the sun rise. It is not a good thing to show the sensei that one does not have the mental ability to rise within the ranks of the Eshin.

Suddenly, the gathered clanrats ran to cover, leaving behind only foot prints. Then the grey seer smelt what had driven them off. The acrid stench of burnt warpstone. Verminous Fang wiped at his nose from his at stood out in the open. Such bravery was not shown by a single other skaven in the area, but he supposed the Eshin adepts disappeared out of habit, rather than fear. As he stood in the open, he heard the rythmic wump, wump, wump, that he had been waiting for, followed by the quieter but more pronounced high pitched whine. At first, he could not see the machine, only a shadow against the darkness, blotting out the stars. Verminous Fang clenched his fists against the desire to flee, even knowing that this machine was his whole purpose in coming here. And then a sickly green glow became visible, illuminating the aft parts of the wicked contraption and causing them to glow softly in the night. Thje Skryre Adept had turned the machine away from the Grey Seer, in the manner of respect developed during the event known as the STorm of Chaos, when the machine first began to appear in the skies.

Once the rattling copter had landed and the whine of the engine had died down, the Grey Seer noticed that he had been joined by the Sensei, who simply appeared where he needed to be, and never seemed to walk from place to place. Retch'tik, the warlord for clan Skree'Skor, walked softly to the side of the Seer, avoiding the Eshin adept as much as possible. The three waited for the pilot, who was still sitting in the starnge machine. Verminous Fang rapidly fell from "apprehensive" to "bored", and irritation followed suit. The warlocks of Clan Skryre always knew how to get under the skin of the Grey Seer, and watching this one fiddle with his machine from about a hundred yards off just made the top of the list. As Verminous Fang was beginning to gather his magic, just to show the upstart what a real wizard was like, the warlock jumped from the machine and approached the three skaven.

"Greetings, Grey Seer. Greetings, master assassin Sko'tik. Greetings, Warlord Retch'tik." He bowed after each greeting, both showing his deference to the gathered as he demonstrated his own clan's ability to gather secrets. No one should have known the identities that were gathered with the exception of Verminous Fang, who had sent the invitation. "The Copter still flies, yes. But it is in constant need, like a bad apprentice. "

Irritated even more than he though he was, Verminous Fang barked out his reply. "Then why don't you just blast the thing!"

"Ah, Grey Seer," the warlock replied with a smile, "I have considered it many times, yes. But like that bad appentice, it repays its trouble many times in the end."

"Until it betrays you, and you end up dead." The simple statement and hushed voice dampened the warlock's mood visibly. Sko'tik had that effect on others. Verminous Fang often wondered if he killed more enemies with poison or by talking to them until they took their own life. It didn't matter in the end, as long as they did end up dead. And he did manage to quiet the warlock, who walked the rest of the way to the three skaven and handed over a metal tube marked with skaven runes. Warlord Retch'tik took the tube and dug the wax out of the end. He pulled a piece of scrap parchment out of the tube. He unrolled the parchment, and through the various stains was able to make out 4 distinct messages, none of them of any interest to him. Flipping the parchment over to the reverse side didn't help, so he handed it over to the Seer.

Verminous Fang noticed a cluster of three runes in one corner of the parchment and hissed out the words of warding that would allow him, and only him, to read the parchment. "This is good. We will have new help from Moulder, and the price is well within expectations. Retch'tik, pay the messenger. We have work to do."

"Yes, Grey Seer." Retch'tik took a small pouch from beneath his armor and tossed it at the warlock pilot, who had allowed his attentions to wander to his toe nails. As such, he never saw the pouch of warpstone that hit him between the ears. When the warlock awoke, he was alone in the forest with his machine and a pouch of wealth. Now, if only all assignments went this well, he thought to himself as he turned to the rattling copter, attent on the tear in the rear stabilizer.
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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Queetik
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"Master" Assassin
Very interesting Mr. Fang. I anxiously await further developments.
The Shadows of the Howling Heights are contemplating a return in 8th
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SneakyRodent
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I really like some of the little aside comments such as 'Verminous Fang often wondered if he killed more enemies with poison or by talking to them until they took their own life' and 'Verminous Fang glanced at their leader, who, by the looks of things, was making a mental list of the candidates that would not see the sun rise'. It's this sort of padding out of peripheral characters that I so enjoy reading.

Great work as ever VF.
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Bodacious
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I hear that! I really laughed out loud after the comment about Sko'tik :lol: .

Anyway, the story's really good and I also look forward to the next episode.

Cheers,
Bodacious.
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Matt
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I love Verminous Fang even more every time I read a new piece VF. The character is just so rich and well developed. Kudos!

I am eagerly awaiting the next part :)

Matt
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