[Dungeoncore SI] Purple glows in Dark Places

[Mechanis]

A/n: I have a bunch of this written already, I'll be posting it in chunks until I run out, then at whatever pace I write it at. mostly trying to get some energy going.
more later today.
also, I haven't missed the bandwagon have I?

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Waking to an intro screen is an odd experience. Not the least of which, going from a largely comfortable bed to a featureless void filled with colorless fog and floating menus is just a little disorenting. And I do mean colorless, there, if I'd still had a head I imagine it would be hurting just looking at this stuff, but I seemed to be just a presence, a very seeing-without-sight and hearing-without-sound sort of thing. The contents of the menus were pretty simple: one was conspicuously labeled "Difficulty," however rather than the traditional 'easy, normal, hard' style difficulty it was full of sliders. Unlabeled sliders. Yeah. I'm gonna go with 'fuck you, ROB' on that one. The other window had a series of dropdown menus and a big, conspicuous button at the bottom, currently greyed out.
Looking through the dropdown menus was no more illuminating than the difficulty menu- nearly all the options were acronyms- not the fun kind like fallout's SPECIAL, but the sort of alphabet soup you get from turning random phrases into acronyms. And that wasn't even the worst bit, oh no. that would be the ones where multiple identical acronyms were listed, one after the other, with only differences in capitalization, or an extra space or three between letters, and so on.


Frankly, it was the worst user interface I'd ever seen. And as someone who'd used a lot of tools with terrible UIs, I had some pretty bad examples.
Clearly, some experimentation was called for. The second window contained six dropdown menus. It was time to experiment.

I decided to go with an entry labeled 'AARS' in the first box. Interestingly, this opened up a small context menu beneath it, featuring two sliders and several checkboxes. All unlabeled, naturally, but I was beginning to get the impression that this was either an unfinished interface, or one meant only for use by its creator, who would naturally already know what all this crap meant.

I decided to check the second dropdown menu. Interestingly, large swaths of acronyms were now greyed out- experimenting with the two revealed two crucial facts- first, it didn't matter which box was used to select 'AARS,' the same options were greyed out. Second, picking any of the greyed out options instead of 'AARS' kept the same segments greyed out- obviously, these options represented redundant, mutually exclusive, or 'unbalanced' combinations. Equally, the context menu was largely the same, only featuring more or less checkboxes depending. There didn't seem to be any limit to them either- I could freely check the boxes and move both sliders to any configuration I desired, but for now I left them at the 'default' settings.

Selecting a second acronym was also an 'aha' moment- rather than a grey highlight, this one filled with green. Further testing revealed six colors to correspond to the six menu boxes; grey, green, red, white, black, and blue. That particular combination made me raise a nonexistent eyebrow, given its connection with a certain sort of spellcaster, but I continued to experiment.

Further fiddling revealed that, while the sliders and checkboxes of each individual entry could be arranged in any combination, all six appeared to have interrelated effects- sliding one of the two sliders in any single context menu affected one or more of the sliders in the other five, with no easily apparent relationship- it was nothing so simple as 'more blue equals less red'- nor, indeed did it appear there was any sort of 'point limit' being represented by these sliders.

"This," I mused aloud, which sounded really weird, "is a very confusing interface."

I continued to play with combinations. Interestingly, there appeared to be several that allowed one or the other sliders in all six menus to be filled all the way, or all possible checkboxes selected, and others that prevented the sliders from moving past specific points- usually half, quarter or one-third- as well as various combinations that didn't allow any checkboxes at all in a given context menu.

Further, hovering my 'attention' over the large, conspicuous bottom button- labeled only with that universal 'next' sign, an arrow pointing right-gave me distinctly uncomfortable feelings about several of the possible acronyms, an inexplicable feeling that I'd regret selecting them if I proceeded.

Of course, the way basically everything was functionally unlabeled had me distinctly apprehensive about the whole business. Nevertheless, since I wasn't about to spend the rest of eternity floating in a largely featureless void, I decided to forge ahead. I went with a combination that allowed a large amount of leeway and induced no inexplicable feelings of 'I-would-regret-that,' crossed my theoretical fingers, and selected the 'next' button at the bottom.

This induced immediate change- nearly every slider in the 'difficulty' screen immediately jumped to one position or another, and I discovered with a bit of experimenting that these came in groups of three- if one was completely empty, the other two would fill to about 7/8ths, and at best you could only 'balance' them mostly- one of the three would always be a bit more full than the other two. There were eight such trios in total.

Next, I had two new windows to play with- one had a set of four pictograms, each with a small gallery scroller beneath them. The various images didn't seem to have any sort of unifying theme- there were crystals in different shapes and colors, several stylized circuit boards, diagrams of assored rune systems- some I was passingly familiar with, including Norse Futhark, Dovzul, Daedric, even various sindarin scripts, and some that were completely novel, such as one that was based entirely on the arrangement of equilateral triangles into various patterns- and other assorted things- arrangements of gears, stylized droplets in various colors, assorted arrangements of swords, spears, axes and other blades, pictures of various bullets, assorted logos- again, some I recognized, others I did not- and a whole mess of moon, star, sun and planet images- some were generic, others instantly recognizable like the creepy laughing sun and grinning moon of Soul Eater- and more.

The second had four sections, divided by lines, each with five checkboxes- only one of which could be selected at a time- and three input fields, which I discovered would take any number up to 25, and only in combinations whose total was less than thirty.

In the end, I went with instinct- a purple-y crystal that seemed to be glowing, one of the circuit-board glyphs, a magic circle diagram, and lastly a circular logo containing an odd, hourglass-shaped arrangement, which I knew the origin of.

Then I input a relatively balanced spread in the various entry fields, selected checkboxes effectively at random, and hit next, hoping I wasn't screwing myself over somehow.

This caused another shift in the difficulty window- each slider gained a checkbox, and I discovered I could select one of each set of three. Doing so for all eight sets made a large button labeled 'GO' appear at the bottom of the window.
I fiddled with the sliders some, then hit the button.

This caused two immediate effects- first, the fog began to swirl, slowly at first, but faster and faster. Second, it slowly turned purple. Then I was falling-

--Discontinuity--​

"You know, the others would call this cheating."
"You say that like they aren't doing so themselves, at every available opportunity."
"Oh, that wasn't a condemnation. Quite the contrary, it's nice to see you finally realize that they'll never play by the rules unless it's to their advantage."
"Don't remind me. Anyway, this isn't so much cheating as changing the game entirely."
"Outside Context Problems have a way of doing that. Who get to be first?"
"With those minions? Who do you think!"
"Ah. and conveniently, one of the factions that everyone dislikes, and about as 'acceptable target' as it gets without literal nazis."
"Also, I really, really hate that bullcrap later down the line. Derailing shit like that gives me the warm fuzzies."
"Whatever floats your boat. My main concern would be-"
"Don't sweat it. OCP, remember? The connection isn't there. And even one gets made later, I've made the, ah, 'hardware' and 'system architecture' in a way that's incompatible with that particular problem. Imagine trying to run a binary program on a hex-state system- it just wouldn't work properly, if at all."
"What about the minions?"
"Do I look like an idiot? Minions get the same deal. Be pretty pointless otherwise."
"Man, the others are gonna scream bullshit at that little wrinkle. Makes most of their best tricks worthless."
"My heart bleeds. Maybe if they weren't such dicks, I would be less unfair."

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your rampant speculation on who Bold YellowGOLD and Dull YellowGOLD are will likely be aided considerably when we get to the part that shows where I've stuck SI-me.

 

[Mechanis]

I 'awoke' abruptly, to the sight of a smallish cave. Embedded in a natural pillar was a sphere of purple glass, or something much like it, which was also glowing faintly purple. I myself was a featureless humanoid made of translucent purple mist, and I got the feeling most wouldn't see me. The odd awareness of a large amount of cave and the floating menus- these ones helpfully labeled, thankfully.

The fact that they were labeled 'minions' 'rooms' 'features' and 'spells' was a bit of a giveaway, as was the large mana bar floating to my left, with two numbers above it in green- 0/4, to be precise. The mana bar itself was also labeled '300,' and was about half full.

I was a freaking Dungion core.
To quote team fourstar: oh, crapbaskets.

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Well, first things first. I didn't have a clear path to the surface, but instead appeared deep in a cave system. This was both good and bad. On the good side- anyone trying to get to me would need to dig through a bunch of rock, or navigate the cave system outside.
Bad news was, a lot of magic systems had spells that could do just that- or simply teleport right in and ruin my day.
Worse news: a lot of fantasy settings had all sorts of highly disagreeable things living underground, none of which I wanted anywhere near me.

My awareness, equally, was not 'just' of my claimed area, or even something as simple as a sphere, oh no, that would be too easy. Instead I could 'feel' a cylindrical volume I estimated to be about three hundred feet tall, with a radius of about nine hundred feet or so. It was a lot.
I could, however, only get the general 'shape' of the terrain within that radius, unlike the 'claimed' area I currently possessed, which was a small cave no more than fifty square feet or so in size and a short 'hallway' on the far end of the cave from my Core.

It was also clear that I was pretty far under the ground, at least half a mile or so, according to my weird new geo-sense, so at least it'd take some serious work to actually get at my for most wanna-be adventurers.

On the other hand, as a minute passed and my mana went up to '304,' I had a pretty shrewd idea of how to work things from other Dungeon Core stories I'd read before this- and, if my guess was correct, a ready-made set of technologically-adept minions to go full magitech awesomeness with.

Next, I looked at the 'rooms' tag. These consisted entirely of empty spaces in various shapes, with a cost per square foot of space in mana- a very, very low cost. 'Features' seemed to have the stuff that actually went in the rooms, and opening both tabs got me a tutorial popup labeled '1/6 - Rooms.'

Reading it, it seemed I operated a little differently than most Dungeons- I wouldn't get any pre-made rooms, but would instead have to construct each room and its features manually, using a builder interface. I could then save a template of a given room to use again later, or to copy elsewhere.

The mana costs looked painful, but pressing 'next' got me a window labeled '2/6 - Summoning and Building.' this window explained I actually had two options for building things- I could summon a completed object instantly, for a large amount of mana- empty rooms didn't cost all that much, but some things- like the very promising-sounding 'Mana Generator' actually cost more mana to summon than I could have total at the moment.

Alternatively, I could choose to have my minions construct it for me- this would summon materials near my core, which would then be transported to the build site and used to assemble the device, at negligible mana cost. The downsides were obvious- first, there'd have to be an accessible path from my core room to wherever I was building something. Second, I'd need multiple minions dedicated to the task, both to transport materials and do the actual building. Thirdly, it'd take time- to both move materials and do the actual assembly. And then, of course, it could be disrupted fairly easily, either by blocked passages, parts that wouldn't fit through an accessway, or hostile action.

That said, building things was obviously more efficient in the long run, at least initially, since the mana cost was so small- apparently, mana costs for non-living things was a function of complexity; the more complex the object, the more mana it cost to summon outright. Summoning parts and raw materials, however, cost almost nothing- some quick math told me I could summon something like twenty tons of pure gold for a single point of mana, which was insane, but definitely explained why someone might raid a dungeon.

'Spells' got me an interesting list- 'mana bolt,' which cost 5 mana and seemed to be magic missile in all but name, 'Magic wall,' a 15MP spell that would seal a corridor for an hour and 'Absorb,' a 20MP spell that would let me drain mana from mages.

This got me another tutorial popup, explaining that I could learn new spells by having them cast in any area I controlled, or by having minions research them once I had facilities to do so. I wouldn't be able to cast spells outside my own control area, but I could teach them to certain minions, who could leave said area just fine. It also helpfully explained how mana regeneration worked- first, I got some mana from rooms, this was the number on the right, above my mana bar. Second, certain room features or minion types would generate mana for me- this was the number on the left. Recurrent expenditure, I learned, would be shown in red directly above the gain numbers.
Lastly, 'one-time' mana gains would simply be added to my mana bar- these could come from various sources, such as my 'absorb' spell, magically-inclined minions with the own mana channeling it into me for a boost, or, naturally, having a living thing die inside my control area.
Interestingly, the last one included my own minions, which raised certain questions about what counted as 'alive,' given it explicitly included otherwise 'non-living' minions like clockwork robots or automated sentry guns.

But the 'Minions' list was likely the most important- I, after all, was a big ball of glass or crystal or something, and lacked little things like hands.
As expected, this got me another popup. Much like Rooms, Minions could either be summoned directly- though that cost was considerably more affordable, for some reason- or created 'naturally' using room features at no cost (other than that of the feature itself.) living minions would require somewhere to rest, food to eat- this could be summoned directly for a small mana cost (though it warned my that such meals, while filling, were bland and would eventually effect the morale of any minion smart enough to actually have morale,) provided by room features, or imported from outside the Dungeon, whether by hunting or trade with other powers.

Intelligent minions would possess considerable loyalty, but could be driven away by poor treatment. Making sure to provide support for my minions, such as housing, food, and recreational spaces, would be important for long-term health. Mine, that is. It seemed Minions had a real symbiotic relationship, providing things I couldn't do easily or at all, while I helped ensure they were provided for and protected. I honestly wasn't sure who got the better end of the deal, on that one.

When I looked at the minions list thoroughly, I smiled. Because, as I suspected, I had two tabs, each with a short description of the type of minion and a list of several available types.

First, I had Gremlins- these, of course, would be my go-to minions. They were smart, agile, and had an affinity for machines that would come in handy for the sort of industrial magic I was planning. That they had excellent night vision - to the point they usually wore hoods or goggles to protect their eyes from bright lights- was also a factor, given my location.
Interestingly, the list of summons in the other tab included several Gremlin-built constructs, which cost quite a bit more mana to summon, but included tags indicating they could be built independently.

First up I had a small spread of 'combat' units- specifically, 'Thwackers,' a basic troop type armed with a large warhammer and backup knife. They also had partial plate armor, and rugged, padded garments offering a fair amount of protection. Thwackers were meant to jump in and hit things, and their gear reflected that. Each Thwacker would cost me 15MP to summon, and given I had no facilities at the moment, around 6-8 MP a day in upkeep.

Next were 'Gunners,' a more expensive trooper armed with a longarm- from the description, it was actually a sort of super-sized magic wand, set in an ergonomic grip with a stock and trigger, powered by 'clips' that held a small crystal containing stored mana. It would apparently fire a derivative of the mana bolt spell. They lacked the armor of Thwakers, but had a sort of poncho-y thing with camouflage patterns on it instead. They also carried a backup knife, and about a dozen spare clips, which they could recharge themselves in about half an hour per clip.
Gunners cost a whopping 35mp, and around 15mp a day, so I doubted I'd be using them soon.

Lastly were Menders. Menders wore concealing hooded robes and carried a sort of wrench-staff thingy, which they could cast a number of support spells from- 'Repair' would fix machines and equipment, while the expected 'Heal' would mend wounds easily. Interestingly, they had a couple other spells that were of immense value for support specialists. 'Purify' could be used to cure disease or poisons, but also to make drinkable water out of even the most contaminated sludge, and 'Summon Meal' would produce one Gremlin-sized meal identical to the ones I could provide using my core.
It was clear that any excursion outside the Dungeon would have to include several Menders to ensure my troops had edible food and drinkable water, no matter what- an incredible asset morale-wise and a boon to logistics.
Naturally, Menders were fairly expensive- 30mp each, plus about 10mp a day in upkeep. Given their incredible utility, though, that seemed almost cheap.

Next were four less combative Gremlins.
First was a generic 'Gremlin' summon- from the description, these were basically civillains. They could operate room features, help build things, and so on, but came only with a rugged cloth outfit and had no special skills. These cost a mere 5mp to summon, and actually gave me two generic Gremlins per summon. They also only had 2mp a day upkeep, so I could support a lot of them if I wanted to.

However the three other 'non-combat' summons were… very interesting.
The 'Gremlin Builder' wore a sturdy-looking apron and tool belt, with various tools and handy widgets hanging on loops or stuffed into pockets. Completing the look was a instantly recognisable 'hard-hat' that was actually purple, with thick yellow 'caution' stripes on one side, and a small clipboard and nametag. These guys apparently specialized in building Features- according to the description, they were worth four of any other gremlin type when it came to that sort of task, and could double other Gremlin's ability to build things by overseeing them on the job. While a slightly hefty 20mp each, they only needed 3mp a day in upkeep.

Next were 'Gremlin Diggers.' These were, according to their description, expert tunnelers- sporting a hard-hat like the Builder, but equipped with a small, crystal-powered lamp, and a selection of picks, shovels, and other digging tools, Diggers could tunnel out a room to within a tenth of a centimeter of specifications, and do so in a shockingly small amount of time. And they were only 8mp each, with the same small upkeep as Builders.

Lastly was the big one- the 'Gremlin Machinist.' While good builders and okay fighters in a pinch, the Machinist's greatest strengths were in support. A Machinist could study and improve mechanisms, replicate any that were understood sufficiently, and even invent entirely novel machines with enough work. Additionally, they came with two spells- 'Inspire' would give all Gremlins nearby a big boost to speed, toughness, and strength- useful for both natural disasters and as a final defensive measure if an enemy got past my actual toops. Second was 'Summon Scuttler,' which would summon a small robotic minion with a short-ranged but potent mana-blaster built into it.
Combined, the Machinist was a second-line support unit of great versatility and potency. Which was good, since at 60mp a pop they were the most expensive unit I could summon at the moment, though their upkeep was much lower, only 5mp a day.

I also had two mechanical minions, though they averaged more expensive than Gremlins did.
Scuttlers were small, weak robots with a powerful but short-ranged magical blast attack- they wouldn't be much use on their own, but as expendable harassers they were just dangerous enough that one couldn't afford to ignore them. The 15mp cost was kinda painful, though they had no upkeep cost, but the description did state they would need occasional maintenance.

The other was the Tech Knight- and Tech Knights were expensive. 45mp each, and another 30 a day in upkeep without constant attention by a Mender or Machinist. They were, however, also the most powerful combat unit available to me, with thick plate armor, a six-foot stature, and a large sword and thick shield. Combined with their mechanical nature making them tireless and incredibly strong, easily able to smash boulders, and they were a nightmare for an opponent. Unfortunately, they had a distinct tendency to rapidly break down if not serviced constantly, and were not well suited to use in any seriously poor conditions- even a hard enough rain could shut them down, to say nothing of, say, a swamp or something. This meant I'd likely stick with Gremlin troops, at least to begin with, and I'd likely spend some time improving the temperamental machines before using them seriously.

I decided that the first thing I wanted to do was design a few support rooms, so I went back to 'features' and looked at it more closely. There were three tabs here- 'Function' 'Theme' and 'Deco.'
'Deco' held a large amount of 'clutter'- railings, conduits, catwalks, flooring and support pillars, lights, draperies, and so on. Most of this stuff was free, a few things cost one or two mp, and all of it was quote-unquote useless. Oh, I could do a lot with it in combination with other things, but it didn't do much by itself.
'Theme' was also interesting- apparently these were templates that could be applied to a room as a whole, giving it a basic appearance in walls, floor and ceiling to build off of. I currently had a few. 'Industrial' brought to mind a factory from any generic shooter, 'cave' was a natural styling that would round out sharp corners and looked like a perfectly natural cave, 'bunker' gave me a concrete-slab-looking styling, and lastly 'stone' gave me a sort of 'classic dungeon' look with stone brick walls and slab floors and ceilings.

'Functions' was the real meat of things. There were several traps in their own little sidebar, which were all pretty generic stuff- pitfalls, crushing walls and ceilings, doors that shut after someone goes through them, spikes that pop out of walls, that sort of thing.
The other column was much more interesting.
First, it had a large segment of Gremlin-related structures- houses for them to live in, a marketplace for trading, a barracks for troops to stay in, the 'Machinist's workshop' which would help with reverse-engineering and could produce Scuttlers and Tech Knights for free, several entertainment structures, including a junkyard for some reason, and various shops for foods, clothing, and assorted other accoutrements.

Then there was a segment with various farms, all very Gremlin-y in appearance and designed for indoor use- some were just a relatively normal-looking farm with artificial lighting, but others were straight-up hydroponics, and three were apparently for different sorts of mushrooms. Gremlins had also apparently domesticated pigs, goats and a bird much like a very large orange-feathered chicken, which came with their own farms.

Lastly was a section I mentally labeled 'Dungeon Machinery.' there actually wasn't all that much in here, but it was very, very important stuff.
First was the 'Relay.' This was a chunk of the same purple crystally stuff my Core was made out of, mounted in a sort of column-pedestal thing with pipe connections and valves and a couple hatches at the bottom. This could be used to do all the same summoning stuff as my Core, if it was closer or more accessible to where I wanted the summoned thing. This was incredibly useful, since it meant I could maintain subordinate locations without them being directly connected to my core facilities. There was, of course, the small matter of its cost and restrictions, though. First, it was one of only a handful of structures that could only be summoned directly. Secondly, said summoning could only take place within a certain distance of my Core or an active Relay. Relays would also need to maintain a link to my core to function- meaning that I'd need to set up a chain of relays to reach distant locations, and that chain would be vulnerable to disruption.
Lastly it cost three thousand mana to summon a single Relay. I wouldn't be getting any of these anytime soon, given my current max was a mere six-hundred.

After that was the 'Power Crystal.' This looked a lot like a protoss pylon done in purple crystal and floating rocks with glowing runes on them, and was apparently how I increased my mana capacity. Like the Relay, it could only be summoned, but it had a much more reasonable price-tag of 200 mana. Not unfeasible, but quite pricey at the moment. It also came with a warning that, if it was destroyed, it would release all its stored mana at once in the form of a spectacular explosion, so putting them somewhere they weren't likely to get damaged, or, failing that, where nothing else important would get destroyed if they did blow up was recommended.

Then there was the 'Focus Orb.' This was the first structure I could build with minions, and would apparently enhance a single spell for me or my minions. They were expensive, 1500mp to summon, but I could build them with minions much cheaper.

The 'Boss Totem' would apparently let me design a special, unique Minion with impressive abilities, and would automatically resurrect it regardless of whether it died in my area of influence or not- apparently, if a minion died in my control zone, I could revive them for free, but if they died outside I'd need a relatively intact body and a hefty amount of mana to bring them back. The totem cost 2000mp to summon, but was another buildable structure.

The 'Barrier Crystal' was in interesting widget as well- it was another chunk of the ubiquitous purple crystal that seemed to characterize my magic devices, mounted in a sort of bracket thing, with little chunks of the crystal orbiting around the larger one. When active, it would project a conceptually impenetrable shield over a single Dungeon Feature. They required a line-of-sight from the crystal to the projected object, and couldn't be further than a few hundred feet away from whatever they were protecting, but given the list of things they could protect included doors and my Core, that was an extremely useful device. Of course, given they needed 5000mp to summon, and the shield would guzzle down 500mp for each minute it was active, they were hardly any sort of 'ultimate defense,' but as an emergency measure it was quite useful.

The 'Mana Generator' was the most personally interesting feature to me. It consisted of a short rod of the purple crystal, surrounded by four quarter-circle stone obelisks, which had glowing runes lining the edges of their outer surface. It cost 1500mp to summon, but could be built by minions. Their only effect was to provide an additional ten mana each minute.

The 'Mana Turbine' was also interesting- it was little more than a frame, a ring of rune-etched stone around a disc of the purple crystal, with a thick metal rod stuck into the disc mounted on a bearing-bracket. It was, apparently, a device that could convert rotational motion into mana, or vise-versa, and could be constructed in almost any size, from enormus to small enough to power a handheld device, though I would have to invest in research to scale it much larger or smaller than the 'default' three-foot-diameter wheel. The biggest advantage of this is, since I could summon any basic material for negligible cost, I could run, for example, a coalfired steam turbine to spin the thing and get a very impressive net MP gain out of it. The 1000mp pricetag put it out of my reach for the moment, since it was summon-only, but once I could use them I'd likely prefer the Turbines over a regular Mana Generator.


I decided that I wanted to get a few things done for my minions before I even started anything else, so I pulled up my room construction interface. I decided to go with a natural-cave theme for the first room, and expanded it to a large cavern, about one-hundred fifty yards wide, eighty yards tall and about twice that long. This would be the 'main town' for my Gremlins, at least initially, so I wanted plenty of room, and figured a floorspace of sixteen acres or so to be sufficient, since I planned on have a significant amount of verticality.
The basic room was essentially a large ovoid dome with some stalagmites and stalactites, but I wanted something a bit more interesting. I raised the height of the 'floor' at one end of the cavern by a hundred feet, bringing about a third of the cavern to that height, then pulled a narrow 'rim' along about half the remaining cavern to the same height, with a slight slope from one end to the other. Then, I carved a deep, twisting ravine across the center of the cavern, leaving only a quarter of the raised end free of the massive crack. I then raised a twenty-foot high and thick stone ring around the raised end of the cavern, and carved an eight-foot-wide arch in the center. These would be the base of the fort I intended to build on the raised segment. My core chamber would be connected to this fort, and I designed it to have an artificial river flow from the core chamber outward. I'd summon the water, then a clever system of pumps would return it to the spring-pool I built in the core chamber. This would meander through the fort in a series of canals, then drain into the ravine from a spout right where the fort's wall met the ravine, to become a deep and slow-moving river below, draining out into a lake at the far end of the cavern. The steep, near-vertical walls of the ravine were where I built the bulk of the town- whole neighborhoods were nestled into carvings in the rock, Elegant arched bridges of brass and steel spanning the ravine at seemingly random heights. Near the bottom, I added smaller sub-caverns, embedded in the mass of stone raised up from the floor- these were filled with the more compact farms- hydroponics, mushrooms, pigs, and fowl found their homes here. Around the shores of the lake I marked out where larger farms went- their dangling lighting rigs would look spectacular, I thought.
The upper citadel got more important structures- a couple of barracks, places for entertainment, a workshop or two, but I left much of it empty for later improvements.

I also modified my Core Chamber- rather than a simple cave, I sculpted it into a gallery lit by great brazirs filled with fire, each at the base of a massive statue of a Gremlin in plate armor, six in total. In between each, backlighting a massive purple-and-gold tapestry hanging, I placed a Mana Generator, and just below the arched stone ring supporting my Core was a pool of water, flowing into a canal out the far end of the gallery. Further canals joined it as it made its way across the chamber, each with a small stone bridge allowing passage to the core.

Naturally, I saved this whole arrangement into 'planned' and then simply roughed out the broad shapes of the two features- the main cavern's gross geography, and the rough columns in the Core Chamber that I'd have carved in the likeness of gremlins later.

All this took about an hour and a half, which filled my mana bar to capacity. Which was good, since I was about to expend about five-hundred mana shaping the large cavern and moving my core chamber back far enough to accommodate it. This would likely be the largest room in my control for a good long while, after all.

Watching the actual process was suitably impressive- the stone began glowing purple, then started to move like water, flowing into the shape I'd specified, leaving me with a dramatic, sixteen-acre cavern with a canyon in it.
That my mana regen also jumped to 0/15 was verra nize. Equally, I could see a sort of ghostly purple overlay of the things I wanted to build later.

It was time to summon some minions. I had 100mp to work with, and I knew I wanted a few combat and non-combat types. I opted to summon a pair of Thwackers, Two Builders, and six lots of generic Gremlins to do fetch-and-carry work.

In short order I had fourteen small, fuzzy Gremlins standing at attention. Interestingly, the generic summons were randomized, sporting a variety of soft-colored clothing and with a variety of garment cuts that were recognisably 'civilian' wear, while the pair of Thwackers looked smart as they stood at a sort of parade-rest, the heads of their warhammers resting on the stone floor of the Core Chamber as I gave out orders.

"Right." I said, gesturing the small pack of Gremlins to follow as I stepped out into the main cavern. I felt like smiling at a few 'oooohs' from the regular Gremlins and the speculating looks of the two Builders as the assessed the valley, and wavering images of farms, houses, and bridges that would, with luck, one day fill the chamber. "So, this is the main cavern. Not much to look at right now, but it's got plenty of room for expansion as I summon up more of you. Right now, I want to put you into to teams- one builder and half the regular folks, and get a pair of Mana Generators up in the core chamber. That should give me enough mana output in a reasonable amount of time to start to really get to work on the cavern here." I turned to the builder pair, who perked up. "How long you guys think that's take?"
The one on the left, whose nametag read 'Fix,' nodded. "Yaboss, mana Generator will take about two hours with this lot. Easypeasy." he gave a toothy grin. "Maybe faster if we had a few more hands, but not much."
I nodded. "Great. You and-" huh, the other one was a girl. "-Pix, get these organized. I'll mostly be saving up for more combat types, so work with what you've got." they both saluted- a sort of fist-to-chest thing, I noted- before waving the bunch of generic Gremlins over and launching into an animated presentation, pointing at various places around the chamber.

I turned to the pair of Thwackers, who hadn't moved an inch. "As for you two- for now, at least until I can summon up some backup for you, your job is to stand on either side of the core chamber door and hit anything that isn't a Gremlin that comes through it. Hopefully, that won't be necessary until you've got some backup, but I'd rather at least have a paper-thin defense than none at all. We'll have plenty of warning, at least- I put all the cavern entrances on the far side of the lakebed, so they'll have to go nearly twice the cavern length uphill to even get here, assuming there aren't magic users with fly or teleport or something of equivalent unfairness among them."
The one on the left looked quizzical, and then asked "but won't WE eventually have finger-wigglers of our own?"
I gave of the impression of a smirk. "First rule of warfare, minion- it's only unfair, unsporting or cheating if the other side is doing it."
I drew solemn. These were my minions, and I intended to keep them. "I fully expect you two, and every Gremlin soldier I summon or train after this, to do your absolute level best to fight as unfairly as possible, and keep in mind always that your job is not to die for me or any other person or cause, but to make the other poor bastards die for theirs." they both puffed up a bit, becoming quite attentive "Failing that, take as many with you as you can. Those hammers aren't for show."
They both saluted, then slung their hammers over a shoulder and departed to watch the door.

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a/n yes, that is a huge freaking cavern. yes, those are Spiral Knights Gremlins, or based on them anyway. yes mana conjuring is stupidly powerful for 'simple' elements or basic materials and parts.

despite that, the setting will make all that necessary, especially given just where Dungeon-me is located in said setting.

 

[Mechanis]

A/n: in the event of an emergency, place your head between your legs and -kiss your bum goodbye.

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Gremlins, it must be said, are a remarkably industrious lot. I'd spent another good chunk of mana summoning up more combat gremlins while watching the mana generators go up- interestingly, it seemed that each of the curved obelisks was actually a sort of layer-cake of obsidian slabs and odd bits of machinery and arcane thingamabobs that were differently arranged in each of the four quarter-rings, along with runs dug into the floor to a sort of braket-thing I presumed would hold the central crystal.

Anyway, my mana regen had, over the course of almost two hours, let me summon fifty additional Thwackers, who were now encamped around the entry to my Core Chamber, a force of twenty Gunners, who I split into two platoons and sent to the 'gates' of the wall around my citadel-slash-town, with orders to keep watch on the rest of the cavern, and eight Menders, just in case- I sent two with the gunner platoons, and kept the rest with my main force.

It was a good thing I did so, because mere minutes before my mana generators would finish, the work teams building scaffolding around the obelisk-machines and mixing an onyx-based concrete that would evidently be the outer coatings, I got a sensation like ice down my spine, a runner from the two gunner platoons, and a warning window.

We were under attack.

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While the notion of being under attack was concerning, given I had very little in the way of serious defenses, I had one major advantage many Dungeons would not- the sheer size of the cavern I'd created, combined with its topography, was a defense in itself- I'd ensured the only entrances were on the far shore of the lakebed, which, while currently dry as a bone, was not the sort of terrain one could get an army, or even a squad though- not easily, anyway. This meant that any attacker would have to skirt the lakebed, all the way to the passable slopes about two-thirds of the way down the cavern- almost half a mile- then go all the way back, since the uppermost rim and my walled-town-to-be were set on even higher cliffs, only accessible by passable slopes at the far end of the cavern. In other words, an attacker would have to trek nearly a mile and a half, most of it uphill, just to reach my town's walls.

That or rappel up sheer, smooth cliffside that, despite looking natural, was in fact carefully shaped to make doing so a dangerous and difficult affair.

However, that was hardly my main concern. Because the small force currently scurrying into my cavern told me where I was, and it wasn't good news.

In fact, there were vanishingly few settings I wanted to be in less than this one, no matter how awesome I thought it was from a fiction standpoint.

As the Skaven scout force got itself into a semblance of order and began to march along the shores of my empty lake, I swore loudly and at length.

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I watched the coming horde as they swarmed over the ground, debating my first moves. I made the coming horde as a recon-in-force- not an overwhelming attack, save in sheer numbers, but enough to put down my small force unless I was very clever.

The attacking horde was, like most Skaven armys, only barely organized- in tabletop terms, they had perhaps three units worth of Clanrats and twice that in Slaves- nearly two-hundred of the ratfolk all told, with all manner of crude cutting implements and light shields at best.
Of greater concern was the clear leader of this warband, and the weapon he was overseeing with a great deal of glee.
"Hurry-hurry! Bring my masterpiece forward fast-fast!"
A dozen sleek, black-furred Stormvermin paced alongside what could only be a Warlock-engineer and what looked like a gatling warp-lightning cannon.

It had three barrels, oddly-shaped glass bubbles on its rear filled with crackling green electricity, and four lesser engineers fiddling with it as its tank-treads rumbled and clanked up the slope.

Yep, I said to myself, that's got to go before they can use it.

Fortunately, the skaven had chosen to concentrate their forces, and the lightning cannon, while certainly a threat, lacked the ability to angle itself up sufficiently to hit the upper cliffs from its current position, laboring along the moderate slope of the lower plateau.
"Alright lads, let's see if we can't thin the ranks a bit." I smirked- which, of course, meant I could use my squad of Gunners to great effect, along with my own magic. "TAKE AIM!"
Twenty Gremlin manabolt rifles poked out over the cliffside, selecting targets among the seething mass. I shouted the beginning of my trial-by-fire: "FIRE AT WILL!"

The Gremlin Manabolt Rifle was an ingenious bit of technology- the 'barrel' was actually little more than a housing to protect a carefully-carved metal rod, which was a wand that could, when fed mana, fire fast-moving bolts of energy. Its 'ammunition' was a metal cylinder containing seven 'slugs' of what I'd taken to calling 'mana crystal,' designed much like a revolver, save that the entire cylinder was removed and replaced rather than the slugs. The trigger mechanism was equally clever- in addition to the ratcheting gears that advanced the cylinder after three shots- the amount it took to exhaust one of the rifle's 'slugs'- it also popped a small rod into place, completing a 'circuit' between the 'barrel' and 'slug' for just long enough to draw the mana needed to fire a single shot.
The actual shots were, I estimated, about as effective as a typical modern rifle bullet, though barely subsonic, and accurate to nearly five-hundred yards- though unlike a firearm, its extreme range was only a little over twice that at a thousand and two-hundred yards, after which the shot would dissipate.

The end result was a semi-automatic weapon with a respectable twenty-one round magazine that fired almost as fast as one could pull the trigger, was easy to service in the field due to minimal moving parts, and, thanks to its nature as a spell-rifle, required no logistics other than some downtime. With their spare cylinders fully charged, each Gunner carried a total of 252 rounds.

As the quiet Zot-Zot-Zot and the panicked and pained screams of scaven filled the air, I breathed in, selecting 'Mana bolt' from my spell menu and targeting the warlock-engineer as he attempted to scream his troops into order.

The result was simultaneously much more impressive than I anticipated and, in retrospect, made sense- a single point of mana could conjure nearly twenty tons of pure gold from thin air. Fifteen could create a living, breathing Gremlin soldier and all their equipment. Enough mana could reshape earth and stone like clay.

So when the six-foot spell-circle sprang into existence under my outstretched palm and spat out a purple-tinged bolt the size of a beachball, which then impacted a very unfortunate Warlock-engineer reducing the upper third of his body to vapor, I really shouldn't have been surprised. Five mana represented a fairly large amount of energy, after all.

There was dead silence on the battlefield for a few seconds, then the circle sprang up again as I targeted the largest and best-equipped of the shocked Stormvermin with another mana bolt.

The skaven force… broke and ran. Ran, and any notions of leadership was immediately rewarded with a manabolt. I made extra-certain to nail the other engineers, who had abandoned the lightning-cannon after it began to make an alarming noise, having been peppered with rifle-bolts by my Gunners. Lightning Cannons were scary enough, a proper SPG with triple barrels was the sort of innovation the Warhammer Fantasy universe really didn't need from the ratfolk.

I wish I'd been able to get all of them, but the limited range of the rifles and slow casting speed of my own magic meant that nearly a hundred managed to get away- many wounded by rifle-bolts, but still scurrying. I watched them go, then turned to my Gunners. "Alright, let's pack it up."
As my troops marched back to the main citadel, in high spirits after their victory, I scowled. This was only the first probe, and while it had been routed and its most dangerous component dealt with- a massive, green-tinged explosion punctuated that thought- I knew it wouldn't be long before I was facing a real army, not just some random warlock-engineer's personal vassal-force. That could easily be thousands of Skaven, and as good as my minions were, I'd need a lot more of them to deal with such a force.

Also of concern were the fact that Skaven weaponry was in many ways entirely superior to that which I currently had access to- they had various field artillery, poison-gas grenades, firearms, flamethrowers, and hulking warbeasts for which I had no counter- Tech Knights were deadly against most foes, but I had no illusions about their ability to stand up to rat-ogres or Doomwheels.
And if that wasn't enough, I'd have Clan Pestilens and all their plage-happy nastiness to deal with.
And then there was the surface factions to worry about.

But equally, the surface factions were likely my only real hope for long-term survival. Specifically, the human Empire and Dwarves could, if I could make contact, be allies- and almost more importantly, a source of technology I could adapt for my own use.

And the fact of the matter is, I was undoubtedly already detected. Warhammer Fantasy had no shortage of seers, clairvoyants, oracles and mystically-attuned artifacts and persons, with the way I casually threw around what most in the setting would consider immense power on even the simplest tasks there was no way in hell my presence hadn't been noticed.

I needed more. More Gremlins, more Mana to throw around for direct summoning, and more defenses. The first thing I did upon the return of my force was summon as many Machinists as I could- I managed six before running dry.
Then I gathered my entire combat force, and the machinists together.
"The force that attacked us had a siege weapon- an arcane device that could throw lightning, and was propelled by an engine mounted on its chassis. Further, it will have been powered by a dangerously toxic substance- a glowing green mineral the locals call 'warpstone.' I want you to not only purify or remove every speck of the stuff, but salvage that war machine. If we can replicate it, we'll have a proper field artillery- and if not, I don't want to leave any potentially repairable parts for the next attackers." I dismissed them, sending several large, lead-lined boxes and tongs to handle Warpstone fragments with them. Then I turned to my build teams, summoning masses of generic gremlins even as I talked. "All of you- get the town's fortifications built up. The gates, the walltops, and the Workshops have priority. As soon as the cleanup team finishes corralling any Warpstone, I'm going to start filling the lake. Let's get started."

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In the end, it took three days for the hammer to arrive. In that time, I'd managed to fort up considerably and fill the lake completely. Dark water now flowed from the 'spring' in my core chamber out into the cavern, and the lights of my fortress glittered like stars as the industrious clanging and banging of frantic construction could be heard from within the walls.

I had no great war machines, no war-creatures or assassins, and precious few troops compared to the oncoming horde. I had a core force of four-hundred Thwackers, another three hundred Gunners, and one-hundred fifty Menders to support them- but I'd also had Machinists laboring away, and Gremlins were nothing if not industrious. When it became clear the warp-lightning cannon was too damaged to quickly dissect, I'd turned my machinists lose on a different task- developing a device that could quickly recharge the clips of mana-rifles. The resulting charge-docks would only function in areas under my control, but they let me use generic Gremlins armed with mana-rifles to defend my walls- and that gave me nearly a thousand garrison troops, crouched in the armored metal of my wall's upper works.

After that, I'd set them to making poison-gas protections for my troops- I had no intention of letting the infamous poison-wind globes wreak their bloody toll on my forces, so all my fighters now sported filter-masks that could, I hoped, keep them alive.

Finally, I'd had them churning out as many Scuttlers and Tech Knights as they could manage- which turned out to be a lot. I had nearly four hundred Scuttlers, which I'd split into two groups and sat along the lower plateau. The bots were stupid and fairly weak, but they'd give the Skaven no end of trouble if ignored, and every minite that passed let my Machinists churn out more Tech Knights. Those, I had 'only' two-hundred and fifty of- but as shock troops they were without peer in my current forces.

All that, and I suspected it would only barely be enough, without a great deal of luck. The force arranged against me was considerable- four lightning cannon, three heavy Warpfire Throwers and a pair Doomwheels, almost a dozen rat-ogres, many with mechanical weapon-grafts, and a seething mass of Clanrats and Slaves. Mixed in to that mass were multiple teams bearing heavy weapons- six Ratling guns, four poison-wind mortars surrounded by knots of globleldeers- easy to spot, since the rest of the army stayed as far away as they could from those unreliable weapons- and another six handheld Warpfire throwers. At the head of this teeming horde was an uncommonly large example of a Skaven, towering over even the Stormvermin that thronged around him, and wearing a suit of what was obviously power-armor- slung over one shoulder on a mechanized armature was a fat-barreled weapon that looked like nothing more than a miniaturized warp-lightning cannon, and the clawed gauntlet the warlord was currently waving in the air was surrounded by a crackling nimbus of green-tinged energy.

I also spotted four blocks of disciplined Jezzails marching behind the warlord- they and the Stormvermin were the only units to maintain even a semblance of order, and I guessed them to be a personal retinue.

It appeared that Clan Skryre had decided to pay me a visit.

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(Skitch Burntail, his THUNDERSTORM CANNON, and Mechmaster Grath Metalclaw are the creations of my friend Audrey, who plays a mean Skaven army. they have been borrowed-with-permission for this chapter.)

 

[Mechanis]

Last section for today.

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I'd decided to repeat my earlier ambush, but the army approaching me was so large it flowed over both sides of the lake. I could split my Gunners and hit both… but I decided against it. Instead, I sent the entire force out to the far side from the Warlord- I opted to call it the Eastern side for lack of better description- and had them wait until the column was fully on the slopes. At that moment, I sent the activation command to every single scuttler, each one partially buried in the dirt like statues. The chaos was instantaneous- mana-blasters spat wide cones of caustic mana with throaty ZAT sounds, and Skaven shrieked and screamed as gear melted, fur blackened, and eyes were burnt out. The horde recoiled from the scuttlers for an instant, then pounced- or the western force did, anyway, likely inspired by their warlord, who had shot one Scuttler with his cannon before bull-rushing a knot of five of my small bots, scatting them like toys as he crushed one like a soda can in his power fist.

The Eastern column was having other problems. Even as they flailed under the assault of the Scuttlers, three hundred mana rifles opened up on the panicking column from the cliffs above. I'd given them explicit instructions to target Jezzails and siege equipment above others, but someone down there was quick on the mark. I saw the clouds of acrid smoke and felt minions dying as the units of Skaven snipers opened up- then there was an actinic flash and a boom of thunder as one of the lightning cannons- held up by a pair of rat-ogres to aim properly- blasted a hole in the clifftop and killed dozens of my troops. I swore as the cannon boomed again, throwing my Gunners through the air like leaves, then cheered when, rather than a third shot, its barrel went white-hot and exploded, sending superheated fragments scything through the Skaven's own ranks- including the pair of rat-ogres that had been holding it up.

Nonetheless, my ambush was inflicting incredible casualties. It wouldn't be enough to kill this column, but I would severely deplete it, and remove several of the Skaven siege engines before they could be used.
Unfortunately, my opponent had opted to take both Doomwheels with his own column, so I couldn't engage them yet, but he'd sent half his lightning cannons, two of the Warpfire throwers, and all the rat-ogres with the second column, and it was costing his forces dearly. Even as I had that thought, there was a bone-shaking pair of explosions and a pillar of green fire to the rear of the eastern force- evidently, my Gunners had poured fire into the fuel-tanks of the warpfire throwers, letting the weapon's own volatile fuel mix do the job for them.

The head of the column, however, was now climbing the slopes to the upper level of the cliffside, so it was time for my Gunners- much depleted but with their goals achieved- to retreat.
In the end, the ambush cost me eighty Gunners- most to that damnable cannon, but the Jezzials added their share to the butcher's bill- and cost the Skaven all but two rat-ogres and every siege engine sent with the eastern force. I'd also nailed half the force's Jezzails, two Ratling Gun teams, a single portable Warpfire thrower, and a little over a third of the Slave and Clanrat fodder.
Now it was down to the siege.

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I stood on the wall above the west gate and watched as the seething mass of Skaven formed up. The warlord's strategy was fairly transparent- he had his remaining Lightning Cannons, rat-ogres and Warpfire Thrower in the center, along with Stormvermin and a knot of well-equipped Clanrats for a spear-thrust, while the two Doomwheels guarded his formation's flanks.
He was, judging by his gesticulation, currently chewing out the leader of the ambushed column while his army got itself together- well, that was semi-expected, I thought to myself as the massive Skaven crushed his groveling subordinate's head like a grape with his power-fist, then raised the bloody device to the sky, shouting a warcry. The army began to move.

"NOW!"

In the courtyard below, two-hundred and seventy four motors roared to life even as the east gate flew open.

There wasn't a roar, just the sudden CLANGCLANGCLANG of metal boots ringing on stone as every Tech Knight I could muster charged into the teeth of the Skaven army, and the near deafening sound of nearly five-hundred mana rifles opening fire at the very edge of their range.
Accuracy was shit, of course- these were untrained conscripts firing at extreme range- but there was simply so many Skaven that it didn't matter. One lucky shot even nailed one of the heavy globes the mortar teams used right as it was being frantically loaded, spewing poison gas over a wide area. Most fire, however, poured out at the center of the skaven army and the trio of siege engines there. Those siege engines needed to die, especially the warpfire thrower, before my Knights closed the range.

And by some miracle, my troops managed it. The lightning cannons got off one shot each, tearing a pair of holes in the mob of charging machines, then another lucky shot went right down the barrel of the Warpfire Thrower as it prepared to fire, cooking off its fuel in a tremendous explosion that smashed the other two cannons into useless scrap.

I could actually see the warlord gnashing his teeth as he grabbed a nearby Clanrat, crushed its throat, and threw the corpse almost eight yards.

Then the Knights arrived, and the real carnage began.

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Tech Knights were machines built for battle- the thick plating and sturdy joints deflected most weapons, and the wide-bladed greatswords they held sent slaves and clanrats flying in halves and quarters as the robotic knights swung them with immense force. Heavy heater shields bashed and blocked, and the knights waded into the seething mass like avatars of death, crushing fallen Skaven to mush beneath armored boots.

It didn't go all my way, however. Tech Knights were powerful units, but that power came at a cost. Their own immense strength and single-minded, mechanical dedication to killing the enemy combined with the high-performance motors and engines needed to pack that power into their six-foot frames meant that they were temperamental and prone to breakdowns.
Here, a Knight lurched midstep and faceplanted, and was quickly swarmed over. There, one simply froze mid-swing as something locked up in its mechanisms, and was torn apart by vengeful skaven.

Another force that stymed them were the heavy weapons employed by the Skaven- while the poison-wind globes were useless, so every globe used was all to the good- Tech Knights didn't need to breath- Ratling Guns, Warpfire Throwers, and the remaining Jezzails were reaping a toll on my Knights. Heavy slugs of Warpstone from Ratling Gun and Jezzail alike smashed my knights apart under sustained fire, and Warpfire throwers burnt them down, heating their plating to cherry-red as internal components melted and failed.

The third knot of major resistance was the Warlord himself. That lightning cannon seemed to take a while to recharge, but each shot lashed out and blasted a Knight apart, and he displayed savage glee at tearing the machine-soldiers to peices with his power fist.
His Stormvermin bodyguards- those that survived, anyway- were also the equal of a Tech Knight in pairs- while powerful, Tech Knights were machines and thus predictable to a great degree, and the Skaven elite fighters had picked up on their weaknesses with impressive speed.

Then the Doomwheels roared in, blasting and crushing as they went, inflicting massive casualties to get at the knights- just as I'd hoped. The gate snapped open again, and all my remaining gunners charged out, firing on the run at the skaven siege machines even as renewed fire from my battlements lashed the remaining army. First one, then the other Doomwheel was peppered with shots, skidding out as their operators lost control or died.

Then I sprung the trap.

A sudden warcry from behind the Skaven army was all the warning it received as my Thwacker force charged in, hammers smashing aside skaven warriors and spreading fear like a virus as the Skaven realized there was no way out- the murderous fire of my mana-rifles and deadly Tech Knights from one direction, and hundreds of eager warhammers scything into them from the other, and it didn't matter how loud the warlord screamed at his subordinates, panic took hold. Any semblance of unity and order the army had was gone, devolving it into a mob.

A mob that fought and died, trying to press through the line of Thwackers and escape, but they lacked the numbers needed for such a thing now- the bloody toll of mana rifles and the carnage wreaked by my Tech Knights and the reckless driving of certain Doomwheel operators had depleted their numbers to barely a quarter of the teeming throng that had entered almost six hours ago, and hours of marching uphill and fighting were taking their toll- but my troops were fresh, fresh and rested and fighting on their home ground, and that lent them extra savagery that tore the Skaven force apart.

In the end, not a single one survived, though the Warlord took nearly three hundred rounds to bring down and swiftly killed anything that got into melee range, in the end, my Gunners still put him down.

It was all over bar the cleanup- thousands of Skaven corpses, many hacked to pieces, warpstone shards scattered over the ground and infused in the glassy craters left by warpfire throwers, and the broken remains of siege engines and Tech Knights littered across the ground.

It'd take days to clear it all up, even with my advantages.

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Alternate title: in which Mechmaster Grath Metalclaw spends his afterlife strangling his Doomwheel drivers.

 

[Mechanis]

character interaction and dialogue will be happening more, but I'm keeping the SI-perspective kinda wordy and exposition-y on purpose.
Also, Grey Seer Thanquol is not in any way involved with the following chapter in any way.
really.
*shifty eyes*

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It could have been worse.

That was the pervasive thought. It could have been so much worse. I'd taken casualties, yes. But in the end, the combination of ambushes and timing- and baiting the Doomwheels into the Skaven force, where they'd cause as much damage to the enemy as to my forces- won the day. It wouldn't have worked against a more mixed force, and definitely wouldn't work against enemies that weren't Skaven, but the piles of rat corpses being thrown into burn-pits proved it worked.

Of more interest was the captured war machines. The Warpfire throwers were all write-offs, of course, and the remaining Poison Wind globes were being carefully drained into much more leak-proof containers for later analysis, though I suspected they contained Chlorine Gas mixed with something else- probably Warpstone, because skaven- I still had managed to capture a substantial amount of hardware. The remains of three of the four lightning cannons were in poor shape- two were half-melted, and one was missing most its barrel assembly. The last, however, was remarkably intact, having 'just' been dismounted from its wagon and slid down a few hundred feet of slope.
I wouldn't want to try actually firing the thing, but in terms of 'gifts for my Machinists' it was the single most intact of the siege engines I'd faced only hours ago. It was pointless to try to salvage the Doomwheels- there was so much Warpstone Bullshit involved in their operation I was unlikely to be able to replicate it anyway.
Ratling Guns and the Warplock Jezzails, however, were of considerable interest to me. While I would likely go for regular bullets rather than Warpstone for obvious reasons, 'Gatling Good' was a thing.

Cleanup of Warpstone was also a pain- Menders could Purify trace quantities of the stuff- like the residue left by Warpfire Throwers- but anything big enough to pick up resisted it. I had Gremlins in lead-lined hazmat suits going around picking the stuff up with tongs and dropping it into lead chests, but I had no idea what to do with it. As it was, however, it looked like the remains of the battle would be cleared away in another couple of days, with round-the-clock shifts doing cleanup.

In the meantime, I summoned up some Diggers and additional Builders, and set them loose on the cliffsides. I needed to get the 'civilian' portions of my town up and running, especially farms. I'd seen the summon meals, and while they were packed with everything one needed to survive, they were bland and looked unappetizing. A bar of unidentified grey stuff and a bowlfull of what looked like grey tapioca pudding did not a proper meal make, no matter how balanced the nutrient content was. It was really obviously survival rations and there was already some grumbling about it. Not too much, the piles of dead Skaven made it quite clear just how close this had actually been, but it was still there.

Also, if I wanted to support many more Gremlins, I would need to ease my upkeep burdens.
And I would need many, many more gremlins to survive what was coming.
Strategically, I had my current army lay claim to much of the tunnels leading into the main chamber. These I burned mana to reconfigure, funneling them into five entryways and filling them with one-way defenses- triangular rooms with fighting steps to let dozens of Gunners pour fire into a single doorway, dogleg corridors with sloped flooring so nasty surprises could be rolled around the corner from one direction, and of course innumerable traps. The whole area had effectively no cover from any defending force, and would herd any force into a gauntlet of death- unless they had enough force to simply smash right through, anyway.

Then it was shore work- I found options that would let me populate the lake with fish, crustaceans, and plantlife, making fishing an option for food, and spent chunks of mana summoning up farms in their entirety as my Digger and Builder teams excavated the cliffside town.

The other project took quite a bit longer- another four days, during which I threw off a third Skaven assault. this one bloodied my meat-grinder entrances but accomplished nothing, being only a few hundred basic infantry- mostly ill-equipped slaves.

But I was ready for the next incursion- and this time, I wouldn't need to rely on desperate gambits to deal with Doomwheels or Lightning Cannons. I, after all, had Lightning cannons of my own, now.
And well that it was so, because what camped outside my door only two days later was a force fit to raze a city.

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This new army was not, as the previous two, the personal warband of some significant personage. This was a true Skaven army- Moulder warbeasts and Skyre siege-machines by the dozen, Eshin assassins, plague monks from Clan Pestilens, and no less than three Grey Seers, clustered around the great bronze shape of a Screaming Bell.
And the infantry, of course, as though that was an afterthought.

The tunnels outside my death-maze were swarming with Skaven, packed in like sardines as far as my scouts could see. There were thousands of them, so many that a warm breeze had started to blow into the main cavern, carrying the stink of rat with it. Or it had, until I'd devised air-traps to blow it back- I had no intention of giving Pestilens a free shot, after all.

They'd only made probing attacks so far, poking at the edges of my meatgrinder half-heartedly as the various leaders gathered here engaged in what passed for politics among Skaven, jockeying for leadership of the seemingly endless horde.

I had no such issues, having finished construction of my first Boss Totem two days ago.
"Rust and hellfire, they must have emptied all of Skavenblight for such a horde!"
I, after all, had a Warmaster. As Keron paced around the map, his staff- generic gremlins, but in smart-looking uniforms- ran hither and thither to update the plots.

Warmaster Keron was my first boss character, and while formidable in his own right his principle skill was command. His Inspiring Presence ability stiffened the spines and hardened the spirits of my Gremlin troops- and his other ability, named simply Lucky Shot, was a combination buff and debuff, bending fate just the tiniest bit- enough that manabolts might strike a weakpoint in armor, that a slight stumble would deflect a killing blow for my troops, or a bullet lodge in a canteen or book rather than flesh.
It didn't seem very powerful, since it was only a very slight twist and only applied to forces he lead…
But Keron was a Gremlin warmaster. Every soldier in the settlement was under his command, affected by the tiniest weighing of fate in their favor.
I hoped it would be enough. That army could smash though my maze at any time with sheer numbers, and then it would be a fight in the cavern itself.

A much harder prospect, now. A low-slung and brooding Star Fort with metal-clad walls sat before the tunnels leading to the maze, and flanking it on the lower plateaus were thick-walled fortifications bristling with lightning cannons and manabolt rifles. Two even larger fortifications sat on the far ends, closing off access to the lower slopes entirely, and a series of strongpoints marched along the upper plateau. Any force trying to take my city would need to batter their way past five different forts, under fire from a minimum of three at a time the whole way. Trying to enter by boat was suicide- a thick, spiked chain was strung between the two forts at the cliff-base, and could be raised to hole any watercraft foolish enough to attempt it- assuming they could get by the fort's cannons and garrison, which was no easy feat.

And then there was the town itself. Outer works now ringed it- a half-height wall with dozens of Lightning Cannons along its perimeter, and more on the main wall, backed by milita rifles. Each fort held a force of Tech Knights, ready for activation, and had Menders and Machinists enough to stand a siege even if cut off.
In other words, I'd turned that cavern into a killing field.
But it still might not be enough- I'd begun to hit the limits of my initial free mana, the maintenance costs of various structures chipping away at it, and now I was at the limits of what my constructions could support.

And half my garrisons still stood empty. The outer works of the citadel and all the upper plateau forts were manned only by a handful of troops, and the center forts that held attackers off the lower plateau were only two-thirds manned. About the only advantage I did have was enough gunnery crews to operate every single lightning cannon at once, since these were the bulk of my forts' firepower.

On the other hand, every day the Skaven army delayed would only reduce its effectiveness and give my digging teams more time to hollow out new chambers, ones to extend my ability to support troops with farms and mana generators alike.

If they just held off long enough, I might even be able to launch a preemptive spoiling attack. Hope springs eternal.

Of course, on the third hand, if I managed to not die, or even rout the army- well, my Warmaster likely wasn't exaggerating about that stripping comment. The army outside my gates was so vast it must have stripped every Skaven garrison in the area for troops- and unlike the Skaven, I could replace my losses in an instant as soon as they were driven from my claimed territory. With, I might add, no loss of experience. A war of attrition was, unusually, not in the rat-folk's favor, at least in the long term.
If I could kill a significant percentage of that army, I could likely destroy, claim and fortify several of the nearest Skaven outposts, giving me a larger buffer to work with.

Once that was accomplished it should be possible to begin scouting the surface- with technical support from the so-called 'forces of order' I could cut a bloody swath through the under-empire.
After all, I had a very simple goal, when it comes to my rat-shaped foes: to march over their corpses to the pestilent heart of their so-called empire, and rip it out.

I was going to burn Skavenblight off the face of the Earth, then salt the ashes.

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Keron scowled at his maps. He needed to break this force, but there were only so many ways to go about it. The Lord's briefing on these skaven had painted a picture almost like some sick, twisted parody of his own race, but the utter toxicity and rampant insanity of their… he hesitated to call it 'civilization,' given how utterly barbaric most of their practices were, and their engineering sensibilities- or, rather, lack thereof- offended those of sane engineers. He liked explosions as much as the next Gremlin, but not from his own weapons overloading!

His scowl deepened, as he studied the woefully incomplete maps of the tunnels beyond the home cavern. The scouts he'd insisted be sent out had only had two days to begin mapping the warren of tunnels before the skaven army had arrived, and several teams had come back short several members- or not come back at all. If they were lucky, those teams were simply cut off, and their Menders would keep them alive.
If not… well, his Lord had advised otherwise, but he'd told his troops the likely fate of anyone unfortunate enough to end up captured.

"Sir, with all doo rrespect, you look like you need to get out of de map room and 'it somezing."
Keron turned his scowl on the elite Thwacker to his left.
"Rux is right, sir. Though perhaps a snap inspection of the outer forts might be more productive."
He intensified his glare.
"And if the skaven happen to attack-"
"And if de ceiling toorrns to cheese, and and and. You'rre frretting, Sir, and you'll do none of oos any good when de time come if you'rre exhausted." Rux drawled, shaking his head.
Keron sighed, then admitted defeat. "You're probably right. If only I had a way to attack these bastards!"
He slammed a fist into the map table for punctuation- then started.
"Wait.. is that-" he grabbed at the scattered maps, putting them together in a more naturalistic configuration with frantic energy.
"Sir?"
Keron grinned, the savage threat-display of a Gremlin on the hunt, then pointed at one section of map.
Rux and Vex's eyes widened, then they broke into identical evil grins.
"Cheating." Vex chuckled. "I like it."

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"How many of them are there out there, Jax?"
Five Gremlins huddled in a nook above the main passage, watching a tide of brown-furred Skaven flow in the direction of their home.
"Far too many. We'd never be able to get through, even with the Warmaster's own luck. It's a minor miracle we've not been discovered as it is." Jax was tired. They all were- summoned meals were filling, but tasteless, and the stink of the Skaven horde below them was pervasive. If they ever made it home, they'd have to burn these uniforms to get the smell out.
"If we get home, Jax, remind me to tell the warmaster that we need better communications. If we could talk to home without being discovered, we'd be-"
There was a sudden surge in the tide, a wide corridor opening up in the center of the passage while a distant clattering noise grew louder and louder.
"The hell're they doing? And wah it that noise?"
Then it tore around the corner, flattening a few hapless Skaven as it went. Superficially, it resembled the 'doomwheel' siege machines they'd fought, but this one was clearly meant for transport- of a Grey seer and single rat-ogre, by the look if things.

The five shared a glance, recalling the Warmaster's briefing on the notable Skaven warlord they knew about.
"You don't think that's-"
"I really, really hope so. If it is, the Warmaster will eat him for lunch."

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A/N: I lied, that's Totally Thanquol.
Also Rux and Vex are the two original Thwackers, and the core of Keron's elite guard by dint of seniority. and by being ridiculous badasses.

 

[Mechanis]

A/n: this chapter contains Skaven politics, Skaven being Skaven, and Thanquol.
While the author apologizes for the first two, the last will hopefully bring some amusement.
The author also wishes to state in advance that Thanquol is a slippery little bastard and will not be meeting his end in this battle, though he'll need a new Boneripper.
That is all.

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Thanquol, Greatest and wisest among all Grey Seers (though, of course, he was intelligent enough to not think that too loudly in the general vicinity of the Seerlord) sneered down at the smoking skeleton that had once been the Grey Seer Kizit, and the groveling forms of his subordinates. "Fool-fools! You Cower-hide in tunnels, with the all-full might-power of this army-horde, squabbling like Manthings! Bring-fast to me all who would command here, hurry-scurry! So Commands Thanquol!" he shrieked, emphasizing his words by intensifying the crackling aura of power radiating from the head of his staff.
The two seers glanced between the nimbus of green power, the looming rat-ogre, and the still-smoking bones of their former overlord, and wisely decided that discretion was the better part of valor, hurring away with squeaked words of obedience.
As it should be, Thanquol thought, even as the thrum of Warpstone ebbed. He was impressed, however, with the sheer size of the army gathered here- not since that disaster in Nuln had he seen such an army. Come to think of it, he'd assumed command there in a similar fashion.
Thanquol hoped that wasn't an omen. After all, that accused Manthing and his pet Slayer couldn't possibly be anywhere near here!
He hurriedly offered a prayer to the Horned Rat that that would be the case as soon as the thought entered his head.

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Elsewhere, Gotrek Gurnisson sneezed mightily. "Blasted dust. Blasted shoddy manling mineshafts. And Thrice-blasted greenskins, driving us in here."
His companion smiled, in good spirits despite their current circumstances. "Look on the bright side, Gotrek! They could have attacked us before we got paid." he jingled a heavy coinpurse illustratively. "Perhaps once we return to some semblance of civilization, we'll be able to afford some decent ale. By your standards."
The thought seemed to cheer the Slayer somewhat, and he forged ahead with renewed purpose.
Then Felix himself sneezed, and Gotrek burst into laughter.

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Thanquol, though, was now much wiser than he had been during that little setback, and had a much better idea how to use this army. And use it he would- the Council of Thirteen itself had bidden him hence, after the horde failed to attack… whatever it was that he could sense pouring power into the air.

By the time the other leaders of the army made there way to the chamber, Thanquol had perched himself atop Kizit's former Screaming Bell, emphasizing his power and position, and was once again riding the thrumming high of Warpstone. Further demonstrations, after all, might yet be required.
The first to arrive was a scarred Skyre war-leader, sporting ugly burn-marks down one side and a clear arm graft- the bulky claws affixed to a skeletal arm with the telltale glow of Warpstone alloy. Two sleek Stormvermin bore thick-barreled weapons with heavy backpack mounts flanked him, and Thanquol immediately marked him as one to watch carefully.

Next to enter was the Eshin master assassin- covered entirely in loose black cloth that undoubtedly hid all manner of poisoned blades, this one entered alone and immediately bowed to Thanquol, before standing below the bell like a statue.

Lastly the Moulder and Pestilens contingants slunk in- Boneripper growled threateningly at the Plage Monk, and the Master Moulder suddenly looked intrigued.

Thanquol glared down at them all. "The Wise-great Council of Thirteen has sent-bid me here to claim-claim this power in the name of the Horned Rat, and what-what do I find? Fool-cowards squabbling like Clanrats over a bone, while the power is UNCLAIMED!" he roared, spittle flying.
"No more-more. I, Thanquol, lead here by the will-order of the Council of Thirteen. If-maybe you wish to protest-" a bolt of power flew from his staff, causing the burnt bones of Seer Kizit to burst into flames once more, slowly disintegrating."-then I will Feed-feed your entrails to Boneripper. Gather your Clawleaders and clanrats, and prepare-quick to attack. Now-FAST!"

The Skyre warlock glared at him the whole time, but Thanquol did, indeed, have the backing of the Council in this. Last to leave was the Eshin assassin, who merely bowed and exited without a word.
As soon as the door to the small chamber closed, a pair of Skaven corpses and a broken Jezzail fell to the ground before Thanquol, a dagger pinning a note to one of them.
It simply read "Eshin serves the Council."
Well well, Thanquol though, How unusual. A competent subordinate.

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We are now in the part where I'm posting as I write, so each post is likely to be smaller.

 

[Mechanis]

a/n: Gremlins like explosions.

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Jaz wiped dust from her fur as the tunneling team labored at the rock-face. There'd been some dicy moments, but she was confident they'd be on-schedule with the other teams for the Warmaster's little surprise. She may not have been a soldier, but it would be her team, and six others like it, that drew first blood.

Her grin was savage as the second team carefully fixed the mine to a specific flaw in the rock-face, tying its fuse-key to a chain that faded into the distance, over nearly a mile of twisting tunnel.

"Right boys, bring up the big one, then let's get out of here. I want to feel these puppies going off!"

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One by one, teams emerged from deep cofferdams in the lake, reporting that all was in readiness.

Keron gave a savage grin, then slashed his hand down.

Seven chains were pulled gently, and then began to retract, ominous ticking echoing out of the tunnels dug in the lakebed.

There was a single moment of crystal stillness as the fuses reached their end, then the earth heaved, and the seven roaring columns of fire, smoke and pulverized rock were like beacons of war, casting the entire cavern in ruddy light.
There might have been some excited cheering, too. Gremlins liked explosions.

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Thanquol was mid-speech, standing before the largest entrance to the reported enemy fortifications, when the ground rumbled, and that he immediately dived under his Screaming Bell was the only thing that saved him- a massive chunk of rock, shook loose by the quake, smashed into the very spot he'd been standing mere seconds before.

Rumbling stone and suddenly-cut-off screams of terror mixed with a thick miasma of fear as ceilings collapsed and tunnels caved in, and it went on and on and on-

Until at last the rumbling ceased, and Thanquol crept cautiously out from under the Screaming Bell. The result… was not, perhaps, as bad as it could have been. Clawleaders and messengers reported in one by one, painting a picture of galleries collapsed, tunnels caved in, and passages made all-but-impassable. Perhaps a third of the army- mostly Clanrats and Skavenslaves, but a fair number of weapon-teams as well- had perished under crushing stone. Another third- including a full half of the siege-weapons brought to field, cursed bad luck- were cut off, unable to reach the rest of the army due to cave-ins.

Thanquol pondered for a moment, then decided the only logical choice was to press on, cave-in or no, and have those parts of the army that were cut off make their way to him by long but still-intact side tunnels. It would not be the massive hammer-blow he'd hoped for, but he'd have reinforcements.
In fact, perhaps this was even fortuitus. It would be easy enough to spin the collapse as a punishment from the Horned Rat for the army's dawdling.
And how much more glory would Thanquol earn, to take this power with but a third of this massive force- it was, after all, so large that even the third remaining to him was among the largest he'd commanded.

He ordered the Slaves and Clanrats in first. Scouts had not returned, so a reconnaissance-in-force was required, and what were fodder for but advancing the glory of their betters?

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"Here they come lads!" Kerik shouted, as the verminous tide surged through the door. Mana-rifles spat and sizzled as they were fired as fast as their triggers could be pulled, warhammers sent squealing bodies flying and pulped limbs and smashed heads, and still they came, frothing over piles of their own dead, pushing the line back slowly.
"There's no end to them!" one Gunner- who'd retreated all the way from the outer chambers- cried, even as he frantically slapped another cylinder into his rifle.
Kerik could see the line wavering, and threw aside his own rifle- empty, now, after nearly three hours of this- and grabbed a fallen Bolt Hammer. He leapt, bringing the heavy mace down on a particularly large specimen as he landed, and shouted to his troops. "Stand your ground! Stand your Ground and fight, damn you all, fight to the last!"
His Thwackers stiffened, fighting with renewed vigor, and warcries filled the air.
"Come and Die, Rats!" a Thwacker bellowed, his hammer lost, fighting with knives in both hands as he shielded a downed Mender.
A Gunner, his rifle empty, smashed its stock down on a frothing ratman and drew his survival knife in the same motion, then hurled the empty rifle at a second Skaven's head, distracting it enough for a second Gunner to disembowel it with his own knife.

But that Gunner's cry had been right- there seemed no end to the bastards. Every Gremlin soldier that fell took down dozens of the ratmen with him, but two dozen more would froth in like a tide, and quantity had a quality all of its own, in these tight rooms. His troops were fighting like demons, but they were tired and beginning to run low on ammunition for the mana-rifles.

The floor was slick with blood- Gremlin and Skaven alike- when Kerik heard the sound they were all starting to fear: the sloshing of a fuel tank.
"Fall back!" he shouted, casting the hammer into a pack of skaven to bowl them over as he ran for his discarded rifle. "Fall Back! Warpfire Thrower! Everybody out!"

Then he heard the bone-chilling Foom of igniting fuel and felt the heat singing his fur, and the room dissolved into chaos as the Gremlin troops that remained fled the inferno that engulfed the chamber. He dived through the door just in time- there was a tremendous THUD as the chamber's drop-ceiling smashed down, crushing anything still in it under a fourteen-ton stone block.

He knew it wouldn't hold long. "Right, we've got about an hour before they can cut through that! Anyone with empty clips, throw 'em in the chargers! Everyone with wounds, see a mender! If you've lost your weapon, pull back to the outer fort for replacements! Hop to!"
He shook his head.
"Just another day in the bloody Mazeguard."

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A/n: Flamethower teams that don't give a shit about frying their own side make tunnel fighting a real bitch.
edit: also, Gremlin survival knives are basically This, with a leather-wrapped wood handle, and while 'only' a foot long are essentially shortswords for a race of their size.
in other words, if someone sticks you with one, you're gonna feel it.

 

[Mechanis]

a/n: you know, I am so glad I found a plugin to export google docs stuff to phbb formatting. it saves so much time you guys, like good god.

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"That, is a lot of rats." The spotter sounded almost awed, and in Tok's expert opinion he had a right to be. The Mazeguard had, in combination with the Maze itself, killed hundreds of the rat-men as they fought room-to-room for nearly a full day. Yet, the seething throng visible within the tunnel atriums- their traps exhausted only hours before- showed no sign of reduction in size, despite the horrific casualties they'd sustained taking the Maze in its entirety.

The forms of siege weapons moving up was of greater concern, since there'd been no time to test how well the wall cladding would stand up to Lightning Cannons in practice, and no means of testing against the nonsensical properties that the strange 'warpstone' material could produce.

Still, Tok was reasonably confidant the rats would be in for a surprise no matter what. As the horde passed the outer range markers, the fort-commander shouted-
"Make Ready all Batteries!"
Tok grinned, and began warming up her Lightning cannon, delighting in the threatening hum the massive machine made as power began to course into its rune-circuits.
"Open all Gun Ports!"
Her spotter pulled a lever, and the three-ton Lightning Cannon perked up in its mount like a scorpion-tail, nosing its pronged muzzle into open air for the first time even as arcs of purple lighting began to build up between its prongs.
Nearly forty identical cannon in three fortresses nosed out nearly simultaneously, dotting their faces with steadily-brightening dots of purple as the hum built to a shrieking howl.
"All Batteries, FIRE!"
Tok pulled the massive weapon's deceptively small trigger, and the cannon roared, a bar of purple-tinged lighting the thickness of a Gremlin lashing out like the wrath of an angry god.
Her spotter whooped. "Good shot, good shot, we nailed one of those 'doomwheel' things!"
She laughed madly, even as the cannon began to build a fresh charge.

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Thanquol ground his teeth in rage. Taking the entryway had been bloody, certainly, but mostly among the slaves- oh, he'd lost a few warpfire throwers to the downright diabolical traps that seemingly covered every single surface in the maze-like tunnels, and more to the defenders lurking within it, but he hadn't needed to do anything more involved than throwing bodies at them to win. A strategy so simple even slaves could do it.

Oh, he'd seen the squat, lurking fortresses that brooded over the cavern, but those would fall easily enough- if not to the siege weapons of Skyre, then to Gutter Runners or, much as Thanquol disliked them, the plagues of Pestelens. Or so he'd thought, before the forts had begun to hurl great bolts of lighting at his army!
And, he thought with considerably more urgency as he deflected yet another another blast with a burst of power, at him. He was already at half again the range of his own lightning cannons, how were these blasted creatures doing this!?
"FASTER-QUICKER, FOOL-FOOLS!" he screeched at the drivers of his Screaming Bell, as it rumbled backwards, away from those horrible blasts.

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Tok sighed as the engineers fussed over her cannon, staring mournfully at the melted projector prongs. It seemed that the cannons could only fire so many shots so quickly, and she had exceeded that limit after having a bolt deflected had incenced her.

She shared a commiserating look with Kaj, who ran the gun next to hers and had done the same. At least she had company, nearly half the cannons were out of action now from one problem or another. At least none of them had exploded, so that was score one for the superiority of Gremlin engineering over the damn rats, she though viciously.

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a/n: Gremlin Lightning cannons are fixed weapons- a three-ton business end and another four of power supply means even aiming the things without motorized mountings is nigh impossible- but are both considerably longer-ranged and more powerful than the Skaven weapon on which they are based. Of course, this power experiences fairly sharp drop-off as range increases, and these first-generation versions are rife with the usual technical issues of a first-generation weapons system- little issues like the projector prongs melting if fired too quickly, the cables that feed power to the cannons themselves (or their connectors) melting/catching on fire, mount actuators breaking because the gun crew swung it around too quickly, that sort of thing.

 

[Mechanis]

Tanks- and I mean real, proper tanks, not the ridiculous armored-car boondoggles the locals call tanks, are definitely on the agenda, as are various projectile weapons.

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Keron glared out at the smoke rising from the outer forts, as distant warcries and the thunderous blasts of Lighting Cannons- both the few remaining guns the outer Forts and the Skaven's own field pieces- echoed through the cavern. An aide interrupted his brooding- "Latest report from the forts, sir."
He turned, gesturing for the aide to continue.
"The lake fort is being overrun,and its guns are out of action- infiltration teams, mostly, those Eshin types are surprisingly sneaky when they want to be- but the Fort Commander reports that his people are retreating in good order. The upper forts are doing much better- we've lost about half the remaining guns from them, but the crews that are left have largely adjusted to the weapons and we don't expect to lose many more of them to malfunctions."
The aide paused, taking a quick sip of water from a nearby glass.
"We have no real information on the actual size of the Skaven force, but given the casualties sustained thus far and our knowledge of their psychology, it must be considerable- the Maze casualties alone are estimated to be pushing a couple thousand, and the killzone right outside the tunnels is a meat-grinder even with most of the lightning-cannons out of action. That said, we are still being ground down by sheer weight of numbers- if they can maintain this intensity even for another day or so we're going to be in trouble."
A pillar of fire engulfed the lake fort as its booby-traps were set off, scorching the cavern roof and eliciting cheers from the garrisons.
"However, Intelligence suggests that, if we continue to inflict casualties at the current rate, combined with the boobytraps, minefields, and ambushes of the current plan, the Skaven should back off before they can take the center forts. Additionally, some mentions have been made of a counter-assault, especially from surviving elements of the Mazeguard."
Keron paced, thinking aloud.
"A counter-assault would be a good thing, if we can manage it, but I think the best time to do so is after the skaven begin to retreat."
He called up his messengers.
"New orders for all units- all forces are to begin massing at the center forts for a counter-push. Additionally, have all the spare tech knights from other positions moved there- we'll wait for them to commit to besieging the forts, then flood their lines with Knights to soften them up."
He turned to the rest of his command staff.
"If they decide to hit only one of the forts, I want preparations made to pincer them with the other half of our forces. Amphibious assault over the river would be the preferred option, failing that we'll drive them with one force then hammer them near the Maze exits. How are the traps coming?"
Another aide, this one a hard-hatted Builder, spoke up.
"Something like eighty percent saturation at this time. It'll have to be good enough, the trapping teams are retreating to the lower plateau to begin efforts there since the lake fort is destroyed. We're not using any of the more volatile substances yet, but the deadfalls, mines and other traps in the basin will undoubtedly slow the Skaven somewhat- that or inflict considerable casualties, some of the Mazeguard have downright fiendish imaginations."

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Thanquol cheered as that blasted fort was engulfed in a roaring pillar of fire- his forces wouldn't be able to use it, sadly, the blast having been expertly designed to ensure the fort's destruction, but those infernal cannons had been silenced one-by-one. Judging by the smoke that that emitted from some of the mountings, some of them were experiencing technical failures, familiar to any right-thinking Skaven.

"Forward, Quick-quick!" he gestured, and the army moved, flowing around the lake to besiege the other fortresses even as sporadic fire from the two on the cliffs above bit at his forces.
Thanquol decided that his current position- a small encampment that none of the guns could reach was a perfect place to command this battle.
His reinforcements, after all, ought to begin arriving within the next few days, bypassing blocked tunnels to bring fresh troops and, more importantly, siege weapons, to crush these last few forts.

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Gotrek spat as he inspected the crude tunnel that intercepted their own- the only way to proceed, given the man-made mine ended in a pile of rubble- and growled a word that deflated Felix's mood nigh-instantly.
"Skaven."

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A/n: where goes Thanquol, often also goes Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger. Because being Thanquol is sufferingvarious gods* have to get their amusement somehow.
*including, but not limited to, Tzeench, the Horned Rat, and Sigmar,