The Dawi in Arda (Hiatus)

Kazad Hargrobi

The stone blocks were shifted into place all across the peak and forced tight into the entrances. Small but sturdy walls to repair the skin of the mountain. You joined with the Easterly Throng and set yourself about the major tunnel on that side of the peak. The Rangers vanished into the darkness of the tunnels and the Throng awaited their return.

Those of the North Tunnel returned first, some amongst their number lost forever in an ambush further into the tunnel. The Rangers reported that the enemy had appeared as if from nowhere, a great swarm of ill them in the gloom. They had managed to carve through some of them and the swarm vanished back into the tunnel after the Warboss leading the ambush was slain. With that warning already given to the Hargrobi they returned to the Throng.

The Greatbeard saw then fit to depart, if the retreating swarm could just be met before they reached the nest proper then the warning might not reach other tunnels.

You Rangers returned next. The East Tunnel wandered loosely about the mountain, and they had managed to slay Hargrobi in the tunnels in great number. Roughly hewn chambers had collapsed in, scouts had been slain and watchers laid low. But someone must have found a dead watcher for the Hargrobi burst out of a wall in the tunnel and struck against the Rangers on their way back. There were some fatalities in the fighting, but the Hargrobi suffered far worse and went back into the depths to lick their wounds.

The Easterly Throng marches forth into the darkness to strike out the Grudge.


The Hargrobi have mustered a host to meet you and in the darkness of East Tunnel the two forces meet. This place might have been a hold of a Karak once, perhaps, the ceiling is supported by well formed pillars and the entryways to the 'hall' are stout. It would be little useable now however, in their haste to meet you and in the utter darkness of the tunnel the Hargrobi have accidentally pulverised a column.

The ceiling begins to rain down upon the two forces and you consider it a blessing wrought by Gazul that the stonework seems to be crushing only the foe. Indeed, in the press of battle you find yourself in stalemate duel with the enemy commander. This is not a Hargrobi, you are sure it must be some sort of Urk for it stands taller than the rest by a half and the beating it imposes on you is heavy enough.

There is the odd glow of lanterns spread throughout the battle, tripods carrying the light have been dropped as weapons were drawn and so the lighting is irregular across the front. You manage to get a rough image of a dark wave of swarming Hargrobi pushing over the shieldwall only to be cut down in a hail of bolts as they are cast into the light.

But you cannot give your attention to the battle for long, the twisting and turning duel between commanders presses into the swarm and Throng at will. Until a great chunk of masonry comes crashing down upon the Urk and there is a stillness in the swarm. Those nearby turn to flee, the collapsing ceiling too much for Grobi hearts.


The Throng presses the advantage, pushing through the hall now littered with stone and slaughtering those who flee before you is a simple enough matter. The Warbosses nearer the rear are bellowing so loudly you'd think they were directly in front of you, their fury and their whip is enough to turn at least some of the Hargrobi back to their deaths.

Those who return to the battle are cut down by Az in mere moments. Meanwhile you come across both of the Warbosses, these more clearly Hargrobi than the last one, and there is a brawl in the darkness. The fight is not going your way and several nearby Dawi turn to aid you drawing one of the Warbosses into their own ranks. It is dragged down and butchered quickly.

The other manages to kick you to one side and tries to strangle you on the collar of your cloak. They pull hard and the hall is illuminated so brightly that you can see the whole ruined battlefield. The Warboss screams as he burns.

The lanterns are collected, and the hall assessed. The Easterly Throng have not escaped the battle in the darkness unscathed. The Quarrellers have accidentally shot one of their own number as he scaled a fallen rock to gain a better vantage point and one Leadbeard was crushed by the falling stone. And there are the five Rangers who died in the initial fight as they scouted ahead to be concerned about.

With the tunnel cleared you press on to its natural conclusion in a vast cavernous space. The height of it must be the very summit of the mountain and the base is so far below you could not hope to guess at it. A tossed stone vanishes and is never heard again. But the cavern is better lit than the tunnels, there are braziers and torches burning throughout and a huge wooden death-trap of a city sprawls across the cavern and both and up and down through its height.

You see the other Throngs entering at about the same level of the City of the Hargrobi and move to link up with them. The city is alive with noise and movement, the Throng puts down those that it comes across, but the Hargrobi seem to be fleeing south and away from the converging Throngs.

The Greatbeard is first to meet up with you again and the Northerly Throng is looking something worse for wear. Their tunnel played host to the caves wherein Trolls were being kept and the Hargrobi chose to release them all from their chains and turn them loose upon the Throng. You've a keen enough eye for these matters to know that the Greatbeard's battle with those Trolls did not leave him uninjured. As with your battle, several of the enemy managed to escape into the city.

The Deadeye however enjoys a Throng untouched by battle. He and his Rangers managed to clear out their tunnel through methodical and stealthy assassination. The dead Hargrobi number hundreds in collapsed chambers and there are thousands in the tunnels who were caught in dead-ends and put down with bolts.

As the Throngs join up you let the Deadeye take the Rangers and begin to scour the city for any Hargrobi who have not fled south and take the rest of the Throng to engage them in the blocked off South Tunnel.

The shieldwall forms, the Hargrobi press against it and desperately try to claw a way out. And the Deadeye returns. Fire, as ever, is the best solution to Grobi. The city behind you is burning in a great tower of flame running from the very base of the mountain and up to the peak. The Deadeye has lost some Rangers to last-stand efforts by Hargrobi and those who went down to start fires in the lowest of levels have not yet returned.


The Hargrobi try to overwhelm the shieldwall with a singular great heave. It isn't entirely ineffective and in truth a breach in the shieldwall allows hundreds of the Hargrobi Elites to reach deep into the backlines of the Throng. Honourable Dawi centuries old are slaughtered as they are isolated in the dark and held in place such that daggers can find the gaps in armour.

You hear the cry of Thane Arzil as he goes down under a mound of shadowed shapes and manage to cleave through the Hargrobi and cast them from him. The Thane is terribly injured, and you haul him away from the battle whilst the Rhunrikki flares his power and knits together the shieldwall again.

The Hargrobi then move to push the Trolls to force another breach, perhaps imagining a similar success to the one gained in North Tunnel. But it does not form as they had intended. Quarrellers bring low several with massed fire, the Deadeye can be seen at the edge of the lantern light with an Az buried in the back of a Troll's skull and you stride forth into the line and cleave several Trolls open.

The acidic blood that is a known hazard of close combat with Trolls does not spill forth you note.


The Hargrobi are doomed. Perhaps they know it. The Throng continues to push into South Tunnel, halting to clear out caves on either side as they are come across. You join in the effort of exploring the lesser tunnels of the south side of the mountain and slaying the Hargrobi who split from their swarm in hopes of finding an exit. They are all too easily slaughtered pressed up against sealed exits. The brutality of a Waagh is not to be found in this battle, the Grobi are only interested in fleeing your wrath rather than truly fighting back.

Spoiler: Roll

Elites: 13+5+20= 38
Swarmers: 48+5+20 = 73
Vs
Greatbeard Gallick Steelfinger: 95+10+5+5-15 = 100
Lord Gartrim Greatmantle: 43+10+5+5 = 63
Thane Arzil Leadbeard: 63+10+5+5-15 = 68
Rhunrikki Gutfroy: 75+50+5 = 130
Deadeye Gromurd Stoneskin: 20+10+5+5 = 40
Leadbeards: 36+25+5-10+5+5 = 66
Longbeards: 49+25+5-10+5+5 = 79
Rangers: 73+25+5-10+5+5 = 103
Quarrellers: 95+25+5-10+5+5 = 125

Now the Hargrobi have become a single mass, their leading edge has found the stone block wall that seals off South Tunnel no doubt for the swarm is no longer pressing on away from you. Though they certainly are trying. The shieldwall closes in, step by step, hewing the Grobi with matching swings of their Az. Bolts whistle over head and when a hardpoint amongst the unarmed and unarmoured Grobi arises you are there to step in and carve through it.

There is a particularly vicious battle around you as you step into one such hardpoint. The Grobi are screaming, fearful as much as hateful, the largest try to swarm you as the rest flee back away. You think you even see a huddle of Snotlings diving through the legs of the Hargrobi. No matter, all of the Greenskins shall be put to death and their spores shall be destroyed with flame. Though for so very many of them as this the endeavour will be weeks of work and probably several further kulls to catch those that escape the fire.


And then the Throng comes across the bottleneck keeping the Hargrobi from escaping further. They aren't pressed up against your prepared stone blocks, but against a natural wall of some random cave. It is freshly shorn, expanded by the Hargrobi for who knows what end, and there is a doorway in the distance.

It is narrow and there are many dead Grobi crushed against the sliding stone door and betwixt it and the wall beside it. So many in fact that you think the door is completely unable to move any further despite the great swarm trying to press out through it. All the same, the Throng presses on and you'll see to it that the Deadeye checks the real South Tunnel for any hiders.

There's little left of the battle, the Throng sweeps through the final room and seizes the door. Beyond it is a shallow cave and then fresh open air. You stride out onto the open ground and find a wide, slightly rocky pass through the mountain range. You can quite clearly see that it leads down in the east to the grassy vale and to the west it slowly turned southwards and sloped gently away from you.

Despite the easy victory against those Grobi who chose to flee, the death toll is higher than you'd like. Rangers lost in the depths of the city, to ambushes throughout the campaign and to the general toll of battle. Leadbeards and Longbeards and Quarrellers fallen to the unending swarm of the foe. You divide up the survivors between the Throngs but there are notable absences. Not to speak of the injured.

Fatalities

20 Rangers
19 Leadbeards
3 Longbeards
10 Quarrellers

With the battle won and Kazad Hargrobi seized you've a mind to wander the battlefield hard won. But first, and most importantly of all, you strike a Grudge from the Book. The Hargrobi are dead, their nest has been captured and their machines are ash. It is, of course, possible to write a Grudge against the already dead. Indeed the Uzkular are responsible for many Grudges in Zhufbar and Karak Hirn and Karak Kadrin. You shall consider however if such a Grudge should be written and struck for this battle. Or if the Grudge should only be lain upon those who yet live.

The injured are being carried back to Karak Drekfut; some who can, will walk and the Rangers have gone on ahead with the Deadeye to gather wagons for those who need them. In the coming weeks Rangers will return to gather the Hargrobi dead and burn them and to inspect the burnt out ruins of the city for any stragglers.

You have the time now in the aftermath to have a look around yourself and set off to…



[] The Foreboding Tunnel
The Hargrobi did not preside over the whole of this mountain, perhaps you should open up the Foreboding Tunnel and venture within.

[] The Depths
Rangers went missing in the middle of the battle as they were starting the raging inferno that claimed the lowest levels of Kazad Hargrobi. You might choose to look for them.

[] The Kazad Hargrobi
Most of Kazad Hargrobi has turned to ash, to better destroy the spores of the dead, and what hasn't is a blackened shattered ruin spread across the walls of a truly enormous cavern. Nigh on the entirety of the mountain has been hollowed out to house the expansive city. You might poke about, find some Hargrobi stragglers or stolen goods. Maybe even stolen Dawi belongings that ought be returned to their rightful owners.

[] The Mountain Pass
The Hargrobi were mining a new entrance out onto a mountain pass. No doubt so that they could raid those who travelled it and perhaps launch Waaghs more freely into the surrounding lands. You might take a short jaunt along the pass in each direction to see if you can spot where the Hargrobi who managed to escape are fleeing too.

[] The Ranger Stations
There are injured Dawi to attend to. Your efforts these past… two?... days have afforded you a Grudge struck out. There's no immediate need to hunt the enemy further when they are so few and so weak. Better to go back to the Ranger Stations and attend to the most seriously wounded.

[] Write-In
If there's somewhere in or around Kazad Hargrobi you're interested in visiting you can take some hardy Longbeards and look.



[] A Grudge Struck Out
Those who have fallen in this battle are honoured in our victory. Their deaths are already accounted for by the fall of Kazad Hargrobi.
Or
[] A Grudge Against the Living
The craven Hargrobi who fled our wrath flee with our honour as well. Those who died in taking Kazad Hargrobi must be avenged on those who survived its fall.