"They're not likely to, as their leaders are Night Goblins, as are most of the greenskins within Gunbad and Silverspear. They'll cede the surface and plot by day and raid by night. But that'll cause a rift between them and the Urks and other Grobi, especially the ones living south of the Silver Road. In time they'll be forced to either send forces across the Silver Road anyway to crack down on dissenters or start losing territory and respect. Best case scenario, they either have a full-blown civil war or they have some rebel Warboss draw away their biggest and boldest to go Waaagh somewhere else. But even if they don't, we'll have cut off communication enough between north and south that they'll be unable to coordinate a response when we march east, and the southern half might stay out altogether."
"Any idea when the marching will begin?"
"Depends on the Watchtower-Clans. We want to use the watchtowers as staging and supply points, but the High King refuses to march forces into a tower unless the Clan that has claim to it is leading it, or has given up all claim on it. So there's a limit on how far east we can go until all the Grey Dwarves commit one way or the other."
And the airborne front, you think as you thank the Thane for his time, is making preparations that won't pay dividends for years to come. This is a campaign on Dwarven terms, and that means reliable, iterative progress with each foothold properly secured and fortified before moving on to the next, with a constant, patient toll being bled off the enemy at every step. Greenskins don't have the patience to wait out that sort of campaign, they'll either decide to stop mucking about and throw themselves into the teeth of Dwarven defences or they'll seek out a proper scrap elsewhere.
It's also a campaign that might have taken a note or two from the Karak Eight Peaks campaign, as it shows an awareness and willingness to take advantage of fracture points in the enemy ranks instead of treating them all as a unified force. It's not quite what Dwarves would call Ranger tactics, but it is a step closer to it than you'd normally expect from the heart of traditional Dwarven orthodoxy.
... Dangit you know what, I am
really darn tempted by this sort of campaign.
Like... this is like the Karak Eight Peaks expedition in reverb.
And they're even mentioning that they learned lessons from Karak Eight Peaks!
There are
so many enemy strongpoints and watch towers and commanders to scout and assassinate and turn against another and learn from and spy upon.
The opportunities for the Night Prowler facet alone are huge; we could stroll right into the various Greenskin cities and eavesdrop on them. We could learn their plans for responding to the Dwarf offensive. We could learn about any attempts of their's to seek out foreign allies... or be sought out
by foreign allies. We've already seen one set of Greenskins making deals with Skaven for some stuff. Why couldn't it happen again?
And Mathilde would be perfectly positioned to be able to spy out and learn of such attempts.
And if we involved ourselves in Thorgrim's campaign, we would also have an opportunity to get closer to him and his confidence. Or perhaps just make ourselves useful enough to him that we'd be able to suss out more what he is like. Get a feel for what he is like and how he's feeling and acting. We could perhaps even try to bridge the divide between Belegar and Thorgrim.
Also, there's a lot of good that Mathilde or whatever Empire aid she recruits or brings in, might be able to do. Maybe Celestial Wizards would be able to map out and/or predict the airways that result in harsh flying conditions for the Gyrocopter hangars? Thus making it possible to create more staging bases for Gyrocopters, because the Dwarfs would be able to know what mountains and zones have winds too ungainly for hangars, and which ones are safe for hangars.
This is a battle we could spend years fighting on; what's more, this is a battle we could have years of stuff to busy ourselves which. By which I mean, there would be a ton of work available for us to do. Rewarding work. Work that would directly help save a lot of lives or a lot of gold and materiel.
And, it would echo the campaigns we have been on.
Goddang, this is
so tempting to get involved in. I want to do this. I want to go on campaign again. I want to put our stealth skills to work again. I want to use the Night Prowler to
really spy on Greenskins in ways other Greys would be unable to.
... Fortunately?
This is all going to be taking years and years. Because it's a bite-and-hold strategy being done at the pace of Dwarf.
Which means we have enough time to finish the Waystone Project first.
But, after we finish it, I want to head in here!
He looks at you, takes in your expectant expression, and sighs. "You're not going to leave me be until I give you answers, are you?"
"I blazed a trail through mountains and wastelands, through Daemons and Fire Dwarves and Skaven and Kurgan, to get at those answers, then you took them and left. The Karaz Ankor might be content to leave it at 'Karag Dum has fallen', but I'm not."
We did NOT recruit 2 knightly orders, a bunch of wizards a few of who have battle magic, Ice Witch assistance,
a fucking Dragonlord and Dragon, get some Runes on those steam-wagons, learn a Battle Magic spell,
create an entirely new Battle Magic in just one year that, due to a lucky fluke, we could use continuously and constantly. And then after all that, wrest an entire Dwarf Karak from the Warp, fight some Daemons, figure out a way to avoid starving by packing in cows on top of a steam-wagon, then
cast our Battle Magic for
hours... only to
NOT get answers about Karag Fucking Dum.
He nods, and turns back to the fire. "We call the Ancestor Gods the Ancestor Gods, because we once had gods who were not our Ancestors," he says in an oddly detached tone as he stares at the fire. "Long ago, far to the south, the old gods were our teachers and our wardens. But their numbers dwindled over time, and when the time was right we escaped, thanks to Grungni and Valaya and Grimnir. But some of those that followed did so not because they desired freedom or venerated our three leaders, but because they mourned their teachers who one day had stopped visiting, and remembered their Names, and knew that such things never truly die and must linger on somewhere. Karag Dum was founded by those who most mistrusted the old gods, and claimed a home with its back to the Chaos Wastes, as Chaos was the only force that could rival the old gods. We watched with suspicion as the Dawi turned their backs on a mountain range that could be mined for a thousand thousand years to spread to all corners of the Old World. Why Ekrund, pinned between the Badlands and the sea? Why Norsca, the shattered remnants of another prison? Why the Middle Mountains, desolate and cursed? Why risk everything to travel across the Dark Lands and the Great Ocean, often never to be heard from again?
"The southern Holds called us paranoid, even as history gave the horrible answers to our other two suspicions: Why Uzkulak? Why Tylos?
Huh. So they
did have Gods other than Ancestor Gods.
And... it's implying that Hashut may have been one of those Gods?
Also: "Why risk everything to travel across the Dark Lands and the Great Ocean, often never to be heard from again?"
Over the Great Ocean??? The heck? ... Is this implying something about a Lustrian Dwarf Hold or something? I've heard some people mention it as obscure lore here and there, as an obscure legend or possibly fake myth or something. Is Borek saying that that really happened? That somebody
did go all the way over the Great Ocean? Also: holy hell, they did so by going across the Dark Lands and Cathay first? That's crazy. To do that instead of just going west from the World's Edge Mountains.
"One of the names we remembered was reshaped into Khsar, blowing across the deserts we had once fled across, feeding on the faith of the desert tribes of the Umgi as they built themselves into a great civilization. Then Elgi sorcery in Umgi hands carved corpses from the desert gods to be receptacles for the prayers of the dead, and the name sought refuge across the seas as Kavzar. But there it was betrayed, a betrayal that birthed a race of betrayers, and what was left of it after being thrice ripped from its domains was as close to death as such things can ever be. In pain and madness it found a fourth family in beings as broken as it was, and walked the world as Morghur, a meaningless bleat from the throat of a beast.
... Well now it just turns tragic.
So, one of the Old Gods, or maybe one of their creations in the Aethyr, was a teacher of the Dwarfs. (Maybe others taught other races.) Then it became a God of Nehekhara. Then Nehekhara met calamity, and so it fled to Kavzar... where its essence and powers were plundered as it was betrayed, and its betrayer became or created the Great Horned Rat. And all that was left was an outcast, Trinimac turned Malacath.
And yet apparently, something of its memory remained and it remembered, because the Dwarfs could call upon it.
Also, this is
fascinating lore about Gods and the history of Gods. I wonder of the Gods of Order, if the prison referred to in Norsca, was the prison of some Gods of Order? If that is what Kislev, The Land, is imprisoning?
"Chaos has swallowed Karag Dum, but every step down its gullet will extract a price in blood." He sighs, and glances at the axe he has still not relinquished his hold on. "I couldn't find it in myself to judge whether that was a grim victory to support, or a betrayal to condemn. Nor could I go down the path of the few Elders that still linger in Karag Dum, doing nothing but watching with hollow eyes and still tongues as their grandchildren go about their lives never knowing that their very souls have been reforged into weapons of spite against the Chaos Gods.
When he says that their souls have been reforged into weapons of spite, is that poetic metaphor or literal? Does it
just refer to my theory that they turned the Karak-Runes from "protect us from Chaos" to "burn off Morghur's taint", thus meaning Dawi souls aren't so safe from the Winds of Magic but in return lets Morghur defend the Karak and spite Chaos by transforming the land into sand or trees or something? Or, are their souls now aligned with pre-Khsar rather than the Ancestor Gods or something? Or, does Morghur get reborn from Dawi in Dum now?
Wait, no, the protection from the Winds of Magic comes from the rites of Valaya performed on Dawi. Every Dwarf has defenses against the tiny Winds of Magic present in the world. The Karak-Runes are for more heavy-duty defenses and for Storms of Magic and probably for enemy wizardry. So... maybe their kids don't get the Rites of Valaya performed on them or something? Hrm.
Also, damn, that's a bleak existence. For the elders. For the kids. When this sort of thing happens, when you don't see any good future for your kids or grandkids, do you even pass down knowledge or teachings or hope? Do you have kids? The kids or grandkids might have kids, because they are more ignorant, perhaps. And if some elders still remain, if Karag Dum ever manages to get rescued from its terrible position, and their kids no longer subject to... whatever it is... maybe some of the elders will start passing on their knowledge and secrets and masteries again. If they don't just succumb to despair and/or shame.
Still, where there's life there's hope? And maybe Grimnir has a plan, or an idea?
In canon, there were two expeditions, the second happening 20 years later or so. Perhaps the same will happen again? If so, I would definitely want to get involved!
