| Part 4 - Orders; Nemesis Crown Fluff | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 17th July 2007 - 07:03 PM (285 Views) | |
| Scarfester | 17th July 2007 - 07:03 PM Post #1 |
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Scaaarrrrghhh
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The Chronicles Of Clan Vexzkar! Pre-Nemesis Crown Campaign Part 1 - Initiation Part 2 - Rumours Part 3 - Scheming Part 4 - Orders Gritzak was late! That was uncommon and the change in punctuality worried Scarfester. Gritzak was always on time and when he wasn't it usually meant to bad news. With slight trepidation Scarfester moved a bit further into the tunnels, far to the east of the area the Clan was stationed in. He stopped suddenly when he heard a scratching noise ahead. The swift, abrasive noise was not uncommon to areas of tunnels, infested with hordes of the ratmen, but it was best to remain cautious. After a brief pause he moved forward once more. A further fifty yards up the tunnel and the source of the noise was revealed to be a blind rat, scrabbling about for food. The slavemaster left the creature to its own devices and moved on. Many years ago he would have felt a small pang of sympathy for the pathetic creature, due to its similarities to himself. Scarfester considered himself above the common rats, but still linked to them in some way. He could not tell how, but the similarities of the snout and tail were undeniable. However he had also thought humans were similar to the screaming monkeys, in the jungles of Lustria. Especially when they had spent many hours in the taverns. Now all other creatures, were disregarded as inferior and not worthy of attention, regardless of species. All that mattered now, was preserving his own life. He decided to return back to his place of waiting. Gritzak would pay a heavy price for making him wait, if he did not have a good reason! --- Grazlik moved slowly through the undertunnels. He could still smell Skurskritt up ahead. There were slight currents of air in the tunnels, but they were so weak that no human could ever hope to feel them. Not even many skaven could hope to use them to their advantage. Grazlik was one of Eshin's masters of stealth. To become adept in the many and varied arts of silent death, you needed to be able to co-exist with your surrounding environment. It had taken weeks of practice in the sensory deprivated dark, well beneath the surface world, but he had honed his skills to near perfection. Now he could use his whiskers to pin point movements of enemies in the pitch darkness, merely by the micro currents of air they produced as they tried to attack him, or defend themselves. Suddenly Grazlik froze. Skurskritt had stopped up ahead. There was something moving in the tunnel behind them. Something small and fast. The noise disappeared into a side tunnel somewhere behind them and Grazlik dared not move. After several minutes the noise had not returned and he heard and felt the Grey Seers assassin begin to move again. Grazlik settled back into pacing along behind Skurskritt. Each step perfected weighted, on the soft pads of his bare feet gave no sounds and betrayed no hint of his presence. His toes had curled back slightly to keep his claws from scratching or clicking against the rock of the tunnels. Unlike many other Eshin adepts, he did not poison his weapons. There was a clear reasoning for this, because weeping blades constantly secreted their foul poisons and they had a tendency to pool at the edge of the blades. It doesn’t take long for a droplet to form and fall from the weapon. The warpstone laced, liquid causes a hissing sound as it melts most surfaces and can lead to giving away an assassins position. In fact Grazlik had killed an assassin from a rival Clan like this recently. On the way back from Lustria he had been sent by his master to kill a plotting assassin in the pitch darkness of the tunnels under the sea. His climbing claws were darkened with ash and soot from fires, so that only the very edges of them were visible. His enemies usually only noticed them, as they burst through their back and tear through their flesh. Not all assassins were equal in their skill. Clearly Skurskritt was also a skilled stealth adept as well, as even Grazlik could hardly hear him moving. There was no sound from claws up ahead and the only sound he could hear was the very light padding of the feet ahead. He would have to be careful when dealing with this fellow Eshinite. He paused and let the sounds and feel of the other assassins presence, move round the next corner. After a full five minutes he threw caution to the wind and quickly looked at a map given to him by his master. The green glow of the warpstorm indicator gave him enough light to read by. It would also be useful in telling how much magical activity there was near the doom hemisphere. After his brief study, he quickly forced the map and indicator back into his small pouch and gave himself a minute for his eyes to readapt to the pitch blackness of the tunnels. Once his dark sight was restored he raced off down the tunnels with his claws scrapping the rocks to sound like a passing rat. This sound would stop Skurskritt and also allow him to race past and report back to his master first. After around twenty minutes of swift movement through the tunnels he began to feel a change in the air. Something was not right here. It felt like there was a tiny movement of air, but there was no sound at all. Grazlik closed his eyes and concentrated intensely. Nothing! His whiskers were constantly twitched with the movement of air currents, so small that even he found it hard to feel them. Could there be another assassin here more skilled than himself? He strongly doubted it. Skurskritt was not that good and he must be far behind by now. Surely he must be far back in the tunnels. Taking an uncharacteristic risk he pulled the warpstorm indicator out of his pouch and opened it very slightly. As he did so, he bounded to one side, just in case some hidden opponent was waiting for an opportunity to hurl a throwing star or dagger at him. Nothing came. No sound and even the movement seemed to have stopped. Quickly he glanced over the indicator and noticed that dark magic flowed quite strongly here. A significant green glow was evident at the centre of the indicator's ball of magnetised warpstone and seemed to be spreading outwards very slowly. Suddenly the assassin was aware of presences around him. He whirled quickly and lashed out with his hand claws, but they contacted with nothing. No attacks came and it was hard to listen for the signs of an attacker with his heartbeat, pounding wildly in his ears. He span back round like lightning as he thought he heard a wailing sound behind him. Again there was nothing there. Suddenly he noticed what seemed to be a thin smoke coming from the warpstorm indicator. On a quick inspection he realised it was no smoke, but what appeared to be a ghostly hand. With dread gripping his pounding heart he followed the hand up and along the length of an ethereal arm and suddenly realised that a twisted and dead face was starring at him. Then another! In a moment of gland voiding terror, he realised he was surrounded by these ghostly creatures. They seemed to have been drawn to the warpstone in the indicator. Quickly Grazlik, lashed out with one of his blackened claws, but it passed straight through the apparition before him. He ran through the creature and on into the tunnels and quickly shut the lid of the warpstorm indicator and jammed it into his pouch as he accelerated away from the creatures. He certainly didn't want to attract any more of them! --- Scarfester returned to the area where he was meant to meet Gritzak. Still the assassin had not returned. There was further scrapping noises again. He turned swiftly and peered at the mouth of a tunnel opening, from which the sound emanated. In a burst of movement a large rat came racing from the tunnel with Gritzak in pursuit. The slave master watched amused as the rat passed him and one half of his spy ring, stopped in front of him. He noticed the rat had a red blotch on its fur. Human blood had been used to form a skaven rune with dried fur. This could mean only one thing! A message from the Council Of Thirteen themselves! The rat seemed to run directly towards the Clan’s main camp and Scarfester did not doubt that it would soon be in the greedy paws of an excited, but nervous Grey Seer Chittersnitch. --- Grazlik had run for around five minutes, when he stopped. He had just passed through a large chamber and turned a corner into what seemed like a huge amphitheatre in the rock. It was remarkable to see such a large cavern in the rock, deep beneath the earth. Towards the centre of this empty space was a large pile of fire blackened stone. There seemed to be a faint green glow from beneath it and suddenly the Eshin adept noticed the swirling pattern of the ghostly creatures above it. They seemed to be feeding from its energies and were so infused with the dark magic, that they were clearly visible from at least a hundred yards away. Could this be the site of the Doom Hemisphere? A quick glance at the warpstorm indicator, showed a large presence of dark energies. This must be the place he thought. Quickly he stowed the indicator away in his pouch again and began to move backwards so he could check the upper levels. Suddenly he seemed to be being burnt on his right side. Had he been stabbed, or poisoned? Quickly he realised that something in his pouch was glowing hot. It was the warpstorm indicator. Quickly he removed it and dropped it, due to the intense heat. There was a glow evident even through the heavy brass lid. Some strong magic must be being unleashed! He turned to look at the pile of scorched rocks and saw that the creatures seemed to be being drawn into the debris. It was as if some outside influence was drawing all the near by energy from the area and using it. The creatures attempted to fight their way, from the vortex of energy, but were inexorably pulled in by the currents. Their high pitched screams of anguish were unearthly and hurt Grazlik’s ears. He quickly stuffed the indicator back into his pouch, folded in some rags and ran back out of the large cavern. --- Grey Seer Chittersnitch suddenly sat bolt upright and his assassin bodyguards jumped to their feet in anticipation. The seer felt as though he had just been punched in the forebrain by an ogre. Some mighty magic’s were being unleashed nearby. He couldn’t believe it, but the signature of the magic was clearly skaven in origin. There must be a mighty seer close! Why hadn’t he felt his magical presence before? Just as he began to contemplate this portent, a strange rat ran into his chambers, with a red streak across its side. --- Grazlik almost ran straight into the back of a Stormvermin warrior as he left the cavern. Quickly he skidded to a halt and disappeared back behind the entrance to the large hall. After he was certain he had not been detected he glanced around the corner, using two mirrors on sticks. A great technique a former spy master had taught him. What he saw shocked him rigid. There seemed to be a Grey Seer stood near the centre of the hall, looking incredibly pleased with himself. Near to the seer was a giant black portal, that seemed to be torn from the very fabric of reality itself. From this shape, that was darker than a moonless night, came clanrat after clanrat. He stopped and watched for a full ten minutes, before deciding to leave and report to his master this interesting news. The upper levels could wait! An army of thousands was appearing right before his eyes, from nowhere it seemed. Quickly he stowed away his equipment and ran back into the large amphitheatre, chamber. Skurskritt was stood near the pile of stones in the centre and touching things. Grazlik chose another path and shot down it like lightning, before the other assassin turned and spotted him. The Seers Eshin adept was faster and quieter than he previously thought. He would have to give him more respect in the future! --- Well, what news? Scarfester barked impatiently at Gritzak. The infiltration adept quickly mentioned the messenger rat. He had seen others like it! One had travelled to the upper levels of the Ulricsberg and he had followed it. He had found a large skaven Clan, occupying the area and had fooled a sentry into moving from his post. He had gained all the information he needed about the Clan and then garrotted the fool with his grappling line. It had a foot long section made of razor sharp wire, for just such occasions. The Clan was Clan Skarratch, ruled by a warlord called Wynmar. A strong Clan of many thousands and too settled to take on in a straight fight. This was the reason for his lateness. Scarfester accepted it as a necessary evil in the spying job. Things didn’t always go directly to plan. He had experience of this first hand. There had been a third rat heading for the undertunnels of the Ulricsberg as well, but Gritzak could not follow them both at once. Just as Scarfester was wondering why so many of these messenger rats had been seen, Grazlik scurried into view from another tunnel. He was clearly tired and had obviously been running for a long time. After a brief summary of events, it was clear that something big was happening here. The slavemaster dismissed his secret spy web and decided to pay his so called Seer master a visit. --- Scarfester strode into the personal chambers of Grey Seer Chittersnitch and was motioned to sit, immediately. The Seer stood up and was obviously pleased with something. Maybe he was on the snuff again? Great news. I have received a personal letter from the Council. Listen-hear this! With a grand flourish he produced a tiny bone and pulled out the miniscule piece of parchment from within it. He spread the parchment between his fingers and made sure he had everyone’s attention before reading it. Scarfester had a hard time, stopping himself from rolling his eyes, but he restrained himself. Greetings most worthy Grey Seer Chittersnitch. You must go to the man-things land of the Barren Hills and find a great device in the old Elf-thing city of Tor Thana. You must-must gain this by any means necessary and kill-kill as many of the human-things priests as you can. Failure will not be tolerated and will lead to a death most long and painful, for you and your Clan! Looks like there was a reason for the ratmens increased presence in the area after all…. |
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| Demagorgon | 17th July 2007 - 08:21 PM Post #2 |
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Demaaaaargh
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Intriguing! Some engaging twists and turns as well. And it looks like I finally get to see a doom-hemisphere in action!
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| scrivener | 18th July 2007 - 12:21 AM Post #3 |
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*toot*
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Hmm.. seems like you and sneakyrodent are planning ahead for Civil War 2... must watch these ones more closely... :ph43r: Very fast-paced piece, very action-driven, which I like. Just enough descriptions to set a scene and build a character, without being bogged down in details. And.... messenger rats!!!
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| SneakyRodent | 18th July 2007 - 07:42 AM Post #4 |
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Claws of the Horned One founder member
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Gret work Scarfester, and not just because there appears to be a certain Seer mentioned in there
Ah Scriv.....you have no idea....... *walks off cackling madly, then trips over a messenger rat* |
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Grey Seer Skritchit Lord of the Ulricsberg Clan Virulus Holder of 'Best Post' Award 2007 here Took part in the glorious Lords of Decay Revolution of April 1st 2012 The complete works of SneakyRodent can be found here [/size]
(Scrivener on the Scum And Villainy2 characters of me, DamnedPrince and himself) | |
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| Scarfester | 18th July 2007 - 08:28 AM Post #5 |
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Scaaarrrrghhh
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Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed it! Oh and scriv i'd have to make reference to your work as well. I loved the messenger rat idea. ![]() Next piece is likely to be a joint piece with Sneaky, after the UEGT.
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| Mebob | 18th July 2007 - 10:12 AM Post #6 |
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Pants are for the weak!
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Awsome piece dude, i like the way you captured the parinoia (spelling?) of the Assassin in, things like
that really capture the image of Skaven ![]() Kepp up the good work
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For proffesionaly made corsets visit: Elegantly bound Classic looks for the modern woman (click the name!) ![]() Clan Notch ![]() Rukarthan 23rd and Order of Sanctuary (Imperial gaurd and Sister of Battle) My Devaint Art account | |
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