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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Tales of U-K8P: A Storm from the South, Part 6
  • Apocrypha
    • Tales of U-K8P: A Storm from the South

    Part 6:

    The journey from the heart of the Lhune Depths to the council room above had, perhaps, never been made more quickly. Flasks of dwarf ale and even more potent dwarf spirits (rumored to be brewed with secret herbs gifted by Panoramia herself) were pulled from secret places and poured down throats- Darna especially, but by no means exclusively. Then came the sprint- first through the remainder of the prince's directions, ending in Hannah riding on Dorin's back as he climbed the ladder, frantically signalling and countersigning with her flame-poof semaphore as he pistoned up the rungs and grumbled his half of the conversation. Prince Belekar met them at the grate that sealed off the depths, hauling it open personally as they surged up. Second was the gauntlet that the staircase had become, and the thousands of stairs upwards past the defenses. Last was the dash across stone floors, through the throne room and into the council chambers. It became almost dreamlike, after the anxious dark and the endless sprinting climb eating every scrap of energy that could be summoned, to glide across level surfaces and see the famous masterpiece of light and spellcraft that was the map of the Karak, and the glinting sapphires upon King Belegar's brow.

    Their news has reached the chamber perhaps minutes before they did, so they walked right into the middle of an uproar. Runners were being sent in every direction to recall forces that were just dismissed, and to summon reinforcements that had been released to other fronts. The war table was in chaos as every force in the Karak seemed to be moving at once. In the sheer chaos, it was actually several minutes before attention turned from ordering the reorienting of armies to planning what they were too be used for.

    In that lull, Dorin edged over to Darna, harrumphing before murmuring under his beard to her.

    "<SO, PLAITLING, THE FIRST GREETING YOU GAVE UPON RESCUE WAS TO THE TORRENTCRAFTER. TELL ME, ARE YOU CLOSE TO HER?>"

    "<Aye elder, I've lived with her since she came to the Karak and she's proven as solid a friend as a dwarf might have. I know she is here, fighting, for me.>"

    "<HRMMM, HRMMM. YOU WOULD VOUCH FOR HER CHARACTER THEN... EVEN TO THE FACE OF GRIMNIR?>"

    "<Aye. I would.>"

    "<HRMMM.>"

    ________________________


    A dreamy interlude where she could just watch and answer absently, if honestly, to the honored priest who was interested in Hannah was a welcome thing.

    The burning focus of the King, the Prince, three Thanes, seven runners, two scribes, a cartographer, and one wizard that followed? Less so.

    Hannah had been spirited away to recover and recharge before every hand was needed again. Darna was speaking rapidly, tongue almost tripping as she fielded questions thrown at her in rapid volley.

    How many were there? What path did you follow to return? What *exactly" did the master Moulder say? What monsters did they have? How were the units maneuvering as they broke up from the speech? Are you sure he mentioned the We? Are you sure he had Tomb King treasure? Are you sure?

    Are you sure?

    No. No Darna was not. She wasn't a trained ranger, she wasn't even in a martial track major- she was Pre-Rune, for Ancestor's sake! The closest she had ever been to combat before this had been the adolescent training every dwarf recieved!

    But she was a student. She knew how to remember, how to come up with answers to a test. So she babbled answers one after the other, while the eyes of the elders bore down on her. Eventually she ended up off to the side huddled with just Prince Belekar as she strained to remember and convey every detail of the cave system and her route through it.

    He smiled at her as she wound down, her pauses between dredged up facts longer and longer.

    "You've done well, and we can use everything you've brought us. Go, rest a moment and eat. You may have just saved the Karak, brave maiden, you deserve at least that."

    It was well after the meal, and the War Council settled on a plan- in fact, it wasn't until the light from the grate under Karak Lhune was once again lost to the darkness and the sounds of a marching army- it was only then that Darna's blush faded.

    _______________________


    Hannah crouched at Dorin's shoulder. The dwarves had positioned themselves exquisitely- with the prince's genius for cave navigation and Darna's memories, the King had set his wedges of heavy infantry to strike the leaders from behind, and pin them against the rest of their army, while his lighter troops raided deep into the army to attack the skaven diggers. The objectives were simple- for the main force, it was the recovery of the tomb King staff, the death of the master Moulder, and the destruction of the skaven special assets, in that order. For the raiding forces, even simpler: stall any digging. There had been no machines or rock-chewing techno-sorcery seen in use by this enemy yet, so the considered opinion of the elders was that any tunnels would be worked by skavenslaves with picks.

    But Hannah was concerned because Dorin was concerned. He scowled into the darkness, head cocked and gesturing irritably for silence the moment any of the unit made a noise. She waited, fidgeting silently, pressed near against the massive cliff that formed the true cavern wall of the Lhune Depths. The enemy stubbornly refused to resolve itself before her- the darkness grudgingly revealing only movement on the closest of the looming mass to her strained eyes. The faint ring of picks on rock and the normal squeak-shrieks of skaven work crews below and before her gave her a little more to work with, but most of her attention was on her commander.

    Finally he turned back and muttered, low and quiet.

    "<THE PICKS RING TOO HOLLOW FOR MY LIKING. MORNIM, TAKE A MESSAGE BACK TO THE KING->"

    He paused, all the dwarves did, as the faint clinks changed timber.

    "<GAZUL'S WHISKERS- THEY'VE BROKEN THROUGH!? NAE, SEVERAL BREACHES! THAT'S YOUR MESSAGE TO THE KING- HURRY BEARDLING! THE REST OF YOU, FORM UP ON ME! WE ARE TOO LATE TO STOP THEIR DIGGING, BUT WE CAN STALL THEIR ADVANCE! STRAIGHT THROUGH AT A RUN DAWI, THEN WE TURN SHIELDWALL AT THE KARAK'S NEW ENTRANCE!>"

    "<KHAZUKAN KAZAKIT-HA!>" A thousand throats answered him from above and behind.

    Hannah drew a deep breath and pushed herself off the wall, shaking out her hands and moving up to Dorin's side.

    "<Khazukan kazakit-ha>" She murmured, and smiled back at the twitch of his beard. And then was the charge.

    The dwarves poured down upon the unprepared skaven, rushing along the cavern wall as it opened out to a series of massive ledges that held the skaven army. Already there were warcries echoing from higher and further into the depths where the hammerguard clashed with the rat ogres and stormvermin guarding their leader- Zrek, as Darna had named him. But that was not her fight.

    She moved at the tip of the spear: Dorin directly in front of her breaking formations and bones with equal ease, two dwarves flanking her with shields, thrusting aside bodies as they ran like the moldboard of a plow- and her, only a head taller than the dwarves and clad in a flickering mantle of aqushy as she flung bolts of flame at any enemy who seemed to be giving orders.

    It was easy! It was glorious!

    The formation cut through the skavenslaves and clanrats like a hot knife through butter, slashing towards a dim entrance to the tunnel where Dorin suspected a breach. Unprepared rats were cut down or shoved off the ledges, while crude spears and swords were all the weapons brought to bear against them. Hannah laughed, wild and triumphant, as the words of presasentia rolled off her tongue and aqushy lept like whips of burning flame to lash her enemies.

    The charge reached the tunnel and turned, driving into it.

    Dorin had been right- there had been a breakthrough. A gap perhaps twice as high as a clanrat and half-again that in width, with the clean lines of dwarven stonework obvious in the tunnel beyond. But the diggers were not the only rats in this burrow.

    A squad of Globadiers gaped as the dwarves appeared behind them, surprised and still half-deafened by the digging. This may have been why, when the commander screamed for them to HOLD FIRE, at least five chucked their lethal cargo into the entrance to the tunnel instead. It was, in a way, a victory for the dwarven side of the battle, as the clouds of choking gas immediately rendered the breach into the Karak impassible, at least for a time.

    But those dwarves who were in the tunnel had a much worse time of it. There was too much momentum for the vanguard to stop- some were caught in the first explosions and died quickly, a few were far enough forward that they slammed the globadier squad into a vicious melee by the time the sickening clouds of gas billowed over them.

    Hannah was terrified. She clutched onto the spell that wrapped her in flaming armour, pouring power into the weave protecting her head, blinding her but scorching the air pure as she gasped, lightheaded from the pain of breathing. Blisters rose in her mouth and throat, though she didn't know if it was from heat or poison and she dared not release her spell or stop running or-

    She slammed into a wall, and only the focus born from knowing she would die if she lost it kept the working from tearing itself from her grasp. Slumping down, waiting to be stabbed, she realized that there only noises which remained were the weakening squeals and gurgles of life passing from bodies.

    That, and a slow sigh, as if a held breath were released, and an inhale choked down in it's wake.

    "<AH. KEEP YOUR MasK Of FLAme Up, DaWOngR, you OF ALL of Us MIGHt yet SURVIVE. FiTtiNG, it seems…>"

    There was a scraping, as if a mortally wounded body were dragging itself forward to her. She couldn't see- was under orders not to see, she told herself- but when Dorin grasped her hand she could feel the pustules on his. He placed a key in her hand, then closed it over.

    "<SHOw thIS… To tHe ELDers. TeLL THem I have.. JUdged YoU worthy, as WRITten in the wILL of… Johann of the GOLD. To be his heir…>"

    Hannah shuddered, her body trying to sob but the oven-heat of the air she drew in making it too painful. She reached out, blindly, and curled her free hand into the locs of his beard, still convulsing with silent tears.

    "<...earned this. ...ancestors...proud…>"

    It was a some time before the red wind ran thin. A longer time before she could bring herself to look at the bodies scattered about her, and the key of gold in her fist.

    Much longer until it stopped hurting to breath.



    A/N- ok so I just kept writing after that last bit...
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • BoneyM said:
    As he leaves sight, you allow yourself the shiver you've been holding in ever since he'd arrived
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    I was rereading. We might want to consider finishing learning cloak activity. That would allow Mathilde to hide shivers when she wants to.
    Catpetter1981 said:
    Doesn't that mean that we can counter Tzeentch by fighting in a circular arena, so that there are no corners for Tzeentch to be in?
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    Try it. A circle is a shape with an infinite number of corners. Just as planned.
     
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    Unless there is a big swing, which seems unlikely given that there aren't (m)any new votes coming in, Dhar and Polyglot will win.

    Adhoc vote count started by Killer_Whale on Apr 14, 2021 at 3:04 AM, finished with 1226 posts and 332 votes.
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    fictionfan said:
    Try it. A circle is a shape with an infinite number of corners. Just as planned.
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    Can Tzeentch unleash a keikaku so complex that they cannot undo that keikaku with another keikaku?
    (TL note: "Keikaku" means "plan").

    On a similar note:

    Can Nurgle engineer a bacteria so resistant that he cannot kill that bacteria with another bacteria?

    Can Slaanesh unleash a pleasure so overwhelming that the victim enjoyer cannot be distracted with another pleasure?

    Can Khorne launch a war so total that it ends all wars?
     
    Incidentally, have we gotten an answer to the dwarf ship bombing incident, or at least the dwarven report on it?
     
    Catpetter1981 said:
    Can Tzeentch unleash a keikaku so complex that they cannot undo that keikaku with another keikaku?
    (TL note: "Keikaku" means "plan").

    On a similar note:

    Can Nurgle engineer a bacteria so resistant that he cannot kill that bacteria with another bacteria?

    Can Slaanesh unleash a pleasure so overwhelming that the victim enjoyer cannot be distracted with another pleasure?

    Can Khorne launch a war so total that it ends all wars?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Attempting to answer these questions is why the chaos gods are always distracted.
     
    Oh hey! That was my 50th apocrypha! Cool!

    Idk why this quest inspires me to write so much, but this is definitely the most fiction I've written since highschool.
     
    I think I have exactly 1 omake outside of this thread. And that represents all the creative writing I've done since like, my first year of high school.
     
    So I may have slightly missed the conversation about classifications, but it occurs to me we already know there's a level of classification where you're not allowed to even know something exists to be classified. It was pretty much the whole reason we didn't know about why Regimand murdered the Empress for so long, IIRC.
     
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