Chapter 3: Death at the World's Edge:
Chapter 3 switches things up by going back in time to earlier in 2524 IC from the perspective of Neferata, First Vampire, Queen of Lahmia and current owner of the former Dwarven stronghold of the SIlver Pinnacle.
The chapter primarily follows her perspective and starts with an introspective look at her situation and her character, which is appreciated because Neferata barely got any attention whatsoever in Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings books. The focus has always been on the Von Carsteins if it's Vampires, or the actual Tomb Kings or Arkhan if it's Tomb Kings. She's always been an afterthought.
The most critical piece of characterisation of Neferata, and which still holds over here, is that she is consumed by a feeling of ennui and melancholy. Neferata turned the Silver Pinnacle, formerly a series of mines, into a lavish and opulent palace in an attempt to emulate her hometown of Lahmia, but it was never the same. As much as Neferata continuously plots and schemes and sits as a spider on top of a web, feeling the vibrations of all the events that occur in the realm, she never leaves her palace and seems to spend most of her day just… attempting to fill a hole in her life. A hole that was formed so long ago when she lost her home and she could never get it back.
However. Things are changing, and Neferata can feel it. Nagash is coming back. She learnt the secrets from which she became a Vampire from his books. Arkhan and Mannfred were working together to bring Nagash back to life, and Neferata could feel a presence in the spirit realm that was sweeping her up in some grand purpose, a feeling she had not felt since she was a captain in Nagashizzar. She found out of Arkhan's actions from her spies all across the realms, in Tilea, Estalia, Border Princes, Empire and beyond. Beautiful Vampiresses that she personally turned to act as her eyes and ears and from which she extracted information. Mannfred was no stranger to intrigue and manipulation, but Neferata was always the master at it.
The parts here are very introspective but they're also very longwinded. To summarise, Neferata doesn't like Mannfred and the feeling is shared, she finds it amusing that he's likely being manipulated by Arkhan, she's worried at the Wall of Faith, which seemingly came out of nowhere and sealed in her informants until Arkhan and Mannfred broke out. She's worried that Arkhan did not approach her, suspecting that Arkhan doesn't trust her and she's worried that he might eventually hunt her down if he feels she wouldn't work with him.
Anyways, despite all of this, Neferata still doesn't feel like getting up and leaving her sanctum. Very relatable. What inspires her is a Chaos attack against the Silver Pinnacle, which is when a Wind sweeps up to form a host right outside her gates that almost gets her to involve herself personally before they just disappear just as suddenly as they came.
The attack finally forced Neferata to make a decision, so she summoned her hosts and told them to break the locks of her ancient vaults and treasures. She would move out and achieve her plot, to acquire a treasure that might ingratiate herself to Nagash, because she knew that the Ritual would succeed but not perfectly. She knew Aliathra was not Finubar's daughter and that it would weaken Nagash. So she set out of her Host, looking back at the Silver Pinnacle one last time before leaving.
We get a little peak at Neferata's handmaidens from the perspective of the first one of them, Imentet:
Imentet inspected the newly raised ranks, knowing she would be questioned soon.
'Forgive me if I speak out of line, Imentet,' Bellatash said, bowing low, 'but do you know why the queen has commanded me to raise the armies? Is it war?'
It was well done, thought Imentet. First off, Bellatash was demure. This did not fool Imentet, for she had seen the lithe form of Bellatash lift up and hurl fully armoured knights. Secondly, her graceful approach and supplicant posture had also shown proper deference. As first of Neferata's handmaidens, this was Imentet's due.
'I know not, Bellatash – but it would be wise to prepare as if it was,' replied Imentet as she finished her inspection.
Bellatash was the last of the two dozen handmaidens that Imentet had been commanded to check upon. Later, Neferata would want to know all the details – who was most reluctant to march, who was eager, and so forth.
Like all of Neferata's get, Imentet was a master of perception, picking out agitation by listening for leaps in heart rates, distinguishing the slightest nostril flare or the narrowing of eyes. Of course Neferata's court was infinitely harder to read than mere human aristocracy. Each vampiress had been taught the Lahmian arts of manipulation, deception and the subtle magics of courtly seductions. Yet Imentet had noted more than she was told. Based on her reports, it was Imentet's guess that not all the handmaidens would be deemed fit to join the march tomorrow evening. In that fierce hierarchy, only the most loyal stayed in Neferata's court for long
It's at this point that I started to lose interest in writing down extensive paragraphs about what's happening. In the interest of actually getting through all of this, I'm going to zoom through everything without anywhere near the level of detail that I usually provide.
Neferata goes through several pages of introspection from this point on where she decides that she will side with Nagash and she goes over her worries as well as how much she missed her homeland and a reveal that she was the one who manipulated Bretonnians, Border Princes and more to crusade and attempt to treasure hunt Nehekhara because she wanted Settra to be weakened so she could retake her homeland, but none of it worked out. Then Neferata goes over the time after she ran away from Nagash's service thousands of years ago where she left for the Dark Lands and somehow came across "The Lost Pass", an ancient mountain pass that contained artifacts of the Dwarves from a lost age, including what is believed to be the Archway of Valaya, an artifact that is said to be the gate from which the Ancestor Gods came from and from which they would arrive again. Neferata was fascinated by this Lost Pass so many years ago, but the security features were too complex for her to breach. Only Nagash could truly usurp them. So after stealing a master key that would open secret gates wrought by the Dwarfs and a Gromril and gold tiara, Neferata resealed the pass and hid it with illusions before leaving.
Now, Neferata wants to come back to the Pass so she can acquire the artifacts within and give them over to Nagash to gain his favour, because Arkhan is clearly not asking for her help and seems to be suspicious of her.
Neferata and her legions of undead and Handmaiden servants carrying her many possessions from the SIlver Pinnacle that she could not part with had to venture quite a way south to get to their destination, but the rough trip wasn't particularly difficult for undead even with the bad weather. Hell, they expected worse opposition but they didn't really get it. They passed by the Silver Road to the other side of Karaz a Karak and went through several places that used to have Dwarf watchtowers, but they were all hastily cast down. They passed through a section of the Dark Lands called the Trail of Fangs where they fought a bunch of wolf riding Goblins, but many sections of the mountain were practically empty by the time they got to it. Not even the Skaven of Crookback Mountain bothered them, because they were busy with recouping the spoils of their plunder from Tilea and Estalia.
It was only past Death Pass that Neferata's army came across hordes of Night Goblins amassing and moving out of the caves that riddled the mountainside for whatever reason, but they weren't prepared for a rear assault so they all ran away. This state of affairs continued until Skull Chasm.
Here, the narrative shifts to the perspective of Night Goblin Warboss Grulsik Moonclaw of the Moonclaw Night Goblin Tribe. Grulsik is cunning and devious, as expected of a Night Goblin Warboss, and he had intended to join Skarsnik's Waaagh in Karak Eight Peaks with his own tribe and collect as many people as he could on the way to prove his competence to Skarsnik. He succeeded to an extent, but that was primarily because tons and tons of Goblins were running past his tribe being pushed out from further north by Neferata's forces, so he managed to browbeat a bunch of Goblin tribes (Bloodpeaks, Webskullz, Moonhowlaz, Madmoonz, Crookblades etc.) into working together. Grulsik managed to muster his forces and position them, within Skull Chasm, which is describe as so:
"Skull Chasm was a notorious site where, game trails and old mining tracks funnelled down from the steep slopes and descended into an enormous fissure. Sheer cliffs rose up on either side of the pathway and the chasm floor was littered with tumbledown boulders and scattered bones. Without entering one of the many caves that opened at the base of the cliffs, there was no way out of the mountainous ravine until the trail passed the gap's centre, where several time-worn paths wound out of the cleft while the main roadway continued southwards. Skull Chasm was an important crossroads in that region, and was aptly named, as it was an ambush site of ill repute, as the many bones attested." Page 190
Grulsik scouts ahead with his wolf riders to track Neferata's forces and positions his army in hiding within the many, many caves and hiding spots within Skull Chasm while positioning a portion of his forces in the Chasm as bait for a very, very classic ambush scenario.
And I'm going to spoil this ahead of time so you can take your time to process it. Neferata falls for it. It's revealed that Neferata is a shitty general, because she spent literally thousands of years sitting in her tower plotting and scheming without ever actually getting onto the battlefield. She falls for it.
There's a bunch of things I've skipped over here. Like the Goblins finding a stash of potent mushrooms, the Goblins having giant squigs and rock trolls, the rivalries between these Goblin characters that are so clearly going to die why am I bothering. That Neferata is using a storm to hide the sun's rays from her legions which should be obvious. Oh, and here's the path Neferata was taking:
Anyways, I'll just do a force projection here in a typically lazy way then go through the Battle of Skull Chasm next time. I can't wait to go over a fight between Neferata and a bunch of Goblins I don't give a shit about so the plot can progress.
By the way, I realised I don't want to spend too much energy on the profile stuff when there are wiki pages that contain the exact text from the book. If you want to learn more, click on the hyperlink attached to the name.
Army of the Silver Pinnacle:
Neferata: Her profile doesn't give anything new. Queen of Lahmia, master of intrigue and subterfuge, fast as quicksilver yadda yadda
Imentet: First of Neferata's Handmaidens.
The Handmaidens: Not sure if they intended to imply that Neferata might be bisexual by describing them as "like a harem". Anyways, several of them have names and stuff, like: the
Pallid Sisters, twins from icy Kislev;
Lycindia the Cruel, the Duchess of Malstonia;
Naaima, a concubine out of far Cathay; and the
Red Coven, a hellish trio atop a coven throne, made up of
Heterneb of ancient Lahmia,
Giselle of Marienburg, and
Bellatash of Tilea. Of these, keep your eyes on Naaima.
Lahmian Guard: Lahmian Tomb Guard.
Guard of the High Mistress: Wight Guard entourage dedicated to Imentet, the only one of the Handmaidens to be graced with one.
Legion of No Name: No name Skeleton warriors.
The Green Skulls: Skeletons with backstory.
The Wretches: Ghouls.
Army of Grulsik Da Great:
Grulsik Moonclaw: Even the book doesn't have respect for him. His profile literally says that his reign lasted a few hours, instantly telling you he'd lose and die in this battle. I mean, it was obvious, but the book itself it not even pretending to believe for an instant that he would win.
Brak Batwing: Mushroom addicted shaman. In a continued display of disrespect, the book mentions how he'll die before the actual battle starts.
Stabba's Stikpokers: Why am I bothering with this? We know they'll die. These are just spear goblins.
Brokko's Bouncers: They bounce on Squigs. I doubt they could actually act as bouncers.
Gnasha N' Basha: Two lucky giant squigs lashed together and thrown at the enemy because Goblins. They're considered lucky because they don't kill allies as often as they do enemies.
Da Beadyeyes and Da Blackbows: Goblin archers with a rivalry. Who cares they're all going to die.
Moonhowlaz: Wolf Riders.
Rok Eataz: Stone Trolls.
Join me next time as my patience wears thinner and thinner in the Battle of Skull Chasm, where Neferata gets her ass kicked by a Chimera and Krell comes in to save the day.
