The lost outpost (Clan Side-Teeth)A full 20 Stormvermin came in through the big gate, escorting the chieftain who had been guarding their newly lost outpost. Warlord Side-Tooth took a moment to observe the little chieftain quivering in fear, his musk of fear filling the room. He knew why he was here, but still he hoped he would get to live for the enormous casualties he inflicted upon Clan Long-Tail during the attack. Side-Tooth took a last look upon the chieftain as he reached the bottom of the throne. Side-Tooth then spoke slowly and calmly, to fool the dumb-dumb idiot into thinking he was safe, “Tell-tell chieftain, what happened today.” The chieftain noticing the calm in the voice of his leader relaxed and thought he had won an advantage he could use to keep him alive and maybe even progress his own rank. “Oh great-great Side-Tooth, fiercest of them all. I have crushed the enemy in battle today, killing most-most of their Stormvermin and many-many clan rats and slaves, yes-yes I have.” Side-Tooth was thrilled that the lesser Skaven fell for his trick, and now it was time to smash his dreams and hopes, “And the outpost, what of it-it?” The chieftain’s face turned pale at the mention of the outpost, and under his breath, he said, “It’s… lost-lost…” Side-Tooth, annoyed that he couldn’t hear his underling, told him to speak louder. Still whispering

the chieftain said, “Its lost-lost great Warlord Side-Tooth.” Now furious that his underling didn’t obey his order he flew to his feet and screamed at the chieftain, “I told you to speak-speak louder, you worthless vermin filth-filth!” The chieftain now scared tremendously, pissed himself on the spot, and was stunned in fear, by the anger from his leader’s rage. He finally gained the courage to speak again, and this time he spoke so the Warlord could hear him, “Oh greatest vermin to ever live, during the attack where I killed most of the enemy’s forces, we lost the outpost to the enemy.” Side-Tooth still angry, with his underling for not obeying orders, sat down upon his throne once again, and spoke, not to the chieftain, but to the Fang leader of the Stormvermin escorting him. “Rip out his teeth, cut off his tongue and throw him to the slaves, they must be hungry.” Even though Side-Tooth had given this punishment, to many failures of Skaven, never before has he smelled a Musk of Fear as strong as the chieftain sent out after he heard his punishment. As the Stormvermin ripped out the chieftains teeth, and added them to the chest of teeth, Side-Tooth started to walk away. As he walked away, he enjoyed the screaming and screeching of the former chieftain, until the screams were muffled and stopped abruptly.

The tongue had been cut out. Side-Tooth liked to use his power in this way, it made him feel powerful, and made him want to mate. When he opened the door that led to the breeding pits, he heard the Stormvermin’s feet dragging the chieftain towards the slave pits where he would meet his doom. This excited the old rat more as he closed the door behind him.

First taste of victory (Clan Long-Tail)

Warlord Twin-Tails could not wait for much longer, the attack force he sent towards Clan Side-Teeth’s outpost should have been back by now. Just as he started to ponder, how he should handle this loss, the doors to his chambers swung open and in strode Warlord Long Feet, with a chain of Stormvermin, prisoners and escorts. He held his head high, for a Skaven anyway. He stopped some few five meters before his leader, and ordered the prisoners to fall to their knees. Lastly, he bowed, before saying, “Great-great Warlord Twin-Tails, the battle was-was longer than planned, but-but we captured the enemy’s outpost. The Intel Clan Eshin provided was true-true, they did not-not know of the chunk of warpstone hidden beneath their outpost. We have already started to mine-mine it, and bring-bring it back to you.”

Twin-Tails looked upon his strongest warlord, and was almost proud of his underling, but the victory was still his, and this should not be forgotten, “Ah yes-yes, if I had not paid-paid Eshin to get that Intel, and found out when to strike-strike we would not have gotten all that warpstone. We can almost buy-buy a Hell Pit Abomination with so much.” Twin-Tails was delighted at this first victory in recent years; however, he could not discount how many losses they had taken during their battle, which led him to his next question, “How many did we lose-lose in the battle warlord?” For the first time, Long Feet lowered his head, and said, “We lost-lost almost every rat in the battle…” Twin-Tails, furious at the loss of work power, almost decided to punish the warlord, but remembered he had gotten the outpost for the clan, after all. He walked to his small table, thinking for a moment, before addressing the set back, “Long Feet, you lost-lost a lot of my soldiers, but-but you still captured the outpost. You can chose two days mating rights, or a week with better and more food. What do you choose-choose?” Twin-Tails knew the warlord had no need for the food; he was the stronger of Twin-Tails two major warlords. Long Feet looked annoyed for a second, but he bit it down. He turned to his leader and told him, “I will choose-choose the mating rights, most generous vermin.” With a flick of his tails, Twin-Tails sent them all away. Long Feet started to walk towards the

breeding chambers, on the way he dropped his amour on the ground for his salves to pick up and carry. Twin-Tails snorted after him. They have things that are more important than mating. For now, they will have to hire Stormvermin from Clan Mors, until more of their own has been birthed. This battle had costed them dearly, but it had gained them a lot more, now they just can’t afford to lose the outpost.

Once again… Failure (Clan Paw Maker)Spine Cleaver was walking towards the flesh halls, the flesh shapers said they were ready, to attempt to create a rat ogre again. Spine Cleaver didn’t believe it would be successful. Nevertheless, in case it actually worked he needed to be there. As he was walking Warlord Furhood hurried to join him. “What is it Warlord?” Furhood jumped at the anger in the voice of his leader. “Most vile leader, Clan Long-Tail has-has moved on Clan Side-Teeth. They have captured one of their outer most-most outposts.” Spine Cleaver scoffed, “So they finally managed to do-do something. But why-why bring me this news now-now? You know I’m busy-busy.” Furhood could almost feel the anger in Spine Cleaver’s voice. He was unsure if he should continue, but after all, he had already disturbed Spine Cleaver, “Our spy tells us there is a large-large chunk of warpstone under the outpost.”

Spine Cleaver stopped in his tracks, and starred at his underling. With a cold and very threatening voice he said, “How large-large?” Furhood knowing that there was no way back now, said as calmly as he could, “If-if we’re unlucky, enough to buy a Hell Pit Abomination.” Spine Cleaver stood in misbelief. This was bad, very-very bad. Barely containing himself, he turned to Furhood again, “Tell-tell Meat Slasher to dig-dig under that chunk of warpstone, and dig-dig it from beneath, while they dig-dig from the top. If they buy-buy an Abomination, they will crash right through-through our gate, and kill-kill us!” Furhood hurried to find Meat Slasher, and tell him of his mission. As Furhood scurried away, Spine Cleaver started to walk towards the flesh halls. He was in a bad mood after the news, so he hoped the flesh shapers were successful, for their own sake. As the gate opened, the smell of urine, excrement, blood, vile fumes and rotting flesh hit his nose like a cannonball. He gagged and almost puked, no matter how much time he spent down here, that smell would forever haunt him. One of the flesh shapers came over to him, with a gasmask. Spine Cleaver quickly pulled the mask over his head. Though the mask was poorly made, and didn’t work like it should, the smell got at least a hundred times better. The flesh shaper then led him over to the Rat Ogre testing area, where everything was laid out ready. He walked over to the Stormvermin bodyguards,

which stood ready to put the beats down should it rampage. Spine cleaver watched as the master flesh shaper turned around, and started screaming at all the flesh shapers present. One second they were all standing still and waiting, the next they were running all over the place. For this experiment, they had a captured Ogre. The Ogre screamed as the flesh shapers cut and ripped his flesh while sewing on new limbs, and injecting him with various fluids. After a full three hours, the Ogre stopped moving. The experiment had failed.

Mercenaries (Clan Long Tail)Twin-Tails watched as the two hundred Stormvermin marched in through the gate. It disgusted him to hire from Clan Mors, but he had no choice. If the other clans attacked him now the clan would fall. He could not allow that, after all it was his destiny to rule the mountain, and become bigger than Clan Mors. He had also chosen to send some of his personal bodyguard out to the captured outpost. Now he needed to order some birthing juice from Clan Moulder. He needed the breeders to give birth to as many rats as fast as possible, so they could get rid of the Clan Mors Stormvermin. They drained his warpstone and slave reserves every day they were here.

However, the Clan Moulder haggle masters were not here yet. Therefore, he opted to check on Warlord Black Tooth and the newest group of Stormvermin. The Stormvermin training grounds were at the other side of the lair, so on his way there, he stopped in by the market to make sure Clan Moulder hadn’t arrived early. He knew they would not be coming before time, but he was anxious to get his clan going again. When he arrived at the Stormvermins training grounds, he saw them all practicing against each other with wooden staves, with a small lump of metal at the end. The first to be knocked out, or give up, lost. This had always been an interesting part of their training, because most of the time the two competitors were of equal skill. Twin-Tails watched the training some time before he spotted Black Tooth. He slowly but determinately walked towards Black Tooth. He didn’t want the recruits to be uncertain about who’s in charge. When he arrived, Black Tooth quickly bowed before him. “Black Tooth how-how is the training coming.” His voice still showed signs of his annoyance at hiring Clan Mors. Black Tooth, confused as to whether his leader was angry with him or something else, said with a certain uncertainty in his voice, “The newest batch are quite good, yes-yes they are. I even think-think the clan will get a new-new elite unit.”

Twin-Tails, looked intrigued at Black Tooth, and said, “Interesting, I hope-hope they’re worth my time. Bring them here at once Black Tooth.” Black Tooth looked over at the recruits, smiled and whispered, “So far-far I simply call-call them, The 13.” He then shouted over the training grounds, “Weaklings! Listen here now-now! You get a break-break, before more training! However, The 13 line up, in front-front of me-me now!” As all the other Stormvermin walked over to the stone blocks, to sit and rub their sore muscles and get a bit to eat and drink, Twin-Tails watched what was most likely the thirteen strongest Stormvermin he had ever seen line up in front of him. They were barely sweaty from the training. With a sly grin on his face, Twin-Tails looked at Black Tooth before suggesting, “What do you say-say, we give them a real-real test?” Black Tooth smirked back, and answered, “I got just-just the thing.”

Time for war (Clan Paw Maker)Spine Cleaver almost felt satisfied, as the Stormvermin dragged the master flesh shaper, and some other flesh shapers, down towards the slave pits. A feeling they had failed to give him one time too many. The new master flesh shaper had already been appointed, and Spine Cleaver had made it very

clear what would happen if he failed him, like the last master flesh shaper had. As he walked back towards his chambers, he could smell it. The musk of war. The clan had grown too big lately, and food was starting to run out. He needed to do something about this soon; else, the clan would rip itself apart from the inside. He could always just throw some lives at Clan Side-Teeth, but it would be stupid to risk them launching a full-scale attack, thinking he was weak. On the other hand, maybe it was time to expand again; it had been some time since last they launched an attack on the goblins at the back of their territory. If they could get more ground, they could grow more black grain. This in turn would mean they could grow even bigger. Moreover, it would be good to get some fresh orc slaves, the lasts ones died long ago, and for some reason no new ones grew from the corpses of the last ones. Now he just needed Gnash Gnask to organize an invasion force. It is going to be difficult, with only slaves, Clanrats and Stormvermin. Maybe, it was also time to test out these rat beats the flesh shapers had made. They are after all the closet they’ve gotten to a rat ogre. Perhaps they will be useful creations. He would leave that decision up to Gnash Gnask. He sent for a messenger to find Gnash Gnask and summon him to his quarters.

As Gnash Gnask entered Spine Cleaver’s quarters, he saw Spine Cleaver briefing the scout team leaders. He went to the side and waited for Spine Cleaver to finish, and as the scouts ran out the door, he said, “Most-most clever leader of them all, why-why am I needed?” Spine Cleaver looked at him and smiled. Gnash Gnask had really missed being out in a real battle, to prove himself, which is why Spine Cleaver thought he would enjoy the news, “I want-want you to launch an attack on the goblins. You get full-full access to our war assets, your focus will be expansion. I believe the goblins have-have grown weak and the time to strike-strike is now.” Gnash Gnask grinned from ear to ear; his time to prove himself had come once again. “Yes-yes most wise leader I will return with new land for you.” Before Gnash Gnask could leave, Spine Cleaver said, “Upon your-your return Gnash I expect to hear-hear about a genocide.” Then he watched as Gnash Gnask left to mobilize the troops to start the invasion of the goblin’s territory. This would leave them weak if they were attacked, therefor he sent word to double the security to the only gate into their domain. Spine Cleaver then decided to check up on his new master flesh shaper, see if he was getting comfortable in his new job. In addition, to see when the next rat ogre test might be. As he was walking down the hallway, towards the flesh halls, he heard something in the dark. He

turned towards the sound with his sword drawn; all he could see was a swarm of blades coming at him.

The break out (Clan Side-Teeth)Side Tooth was restless; his spies had told him that Clan Paw Maker was readying themselves for war with the goblins. To strike them when they were weak and confused, he had sent an assassin after the “Warlord” Spine Cleaver. Now he just needed to wait, and see if it had worked. However, he did not possess that kind of patience. As he was pacing in his throne room, the doors swung open, and a messenger scrambled in. Before Side tooth could ask how the underling dared disturb him in such a manner, the messenger almost screeched, “Dwarf-things, the dwarf-things are doing it again. They are trying to break free-free. Brittle Spine is holding them at the gate-gate.” Side Tooth had forgotten the danger of the dwarves; they were truly a formidable foe to face. He ripped his helmet and sword of the wall, and started to run towards the dwarf-gate, while telling the messenger to gather the clan at the gate. Side Tooth was extremely worried, the last time the dwarfs tried to break out, they almost killed Side

Tooth’s entire arsenal of Stormvermin crippling his war efforts. If Brittle Spine had let those dwarfs through the defences, Side Tooth would deal with him personally. As he rounded one of the last corners, he heard a big thud, and another, and another. When he arrived, the dwarfs had not even gotten through the gate yet. Just as Side Tooth was starting to calm down, the next thud sounded, seven Clanrats were sent flying, and instantly eight new Clanrats stood in their place trying to hold the gate. The gate wouldn’t hold long. He saw Brittle Spine on the other side of the room shouting orders, making ready for the dwarfs. He looked around and couldn’t see the clans seven jezzails, whom they heavily needed against the dwarves. Those armour-piercing rounds worked wonders on those stubborn iron clad warriors. He walked over to Brittle spine using one of the walkways, over the mass of Skaven. “Brittle Spine!” He shouted, to make sure he was heard over all the turmoil, “Where's the jezzails you incompetent filth-filth.” Brittle Spine shot a look at Side Tooth for a second, then looked up at one of the ridges up in the dark, as he saw the ridge empty he lost it, “Shit-shit, worthless lazy jezzails, they should-should have been up-up on that ridge long-long ago.” As Brittle Spine said this the two rats noticed the unusual silence in the room, and just as Side Tooth

was about to say something, they heard another thud, this one echoing loudly around the room, and sending at least fifteen Clanrats flying. In the short time, the gates were open, a single dwarf had gotten through, and he slew three Clanrats and a Stormvermin, before he was ripped to pieces, by the mass of Skavens. As all this happened, Side Tooth saw from the corner of his eye, the jezzails moving into position, and making ready to mow down dwarfs. As the escaped dwarf’s corpse had been fully consumed by the hungry mass, there was another thud, louder than the last one. Up towards thirty Clanrats were sent flying, and another ten was crushed under the stone doors. A surreal silence filled the room. The gate stood wide open.

The risk (Clan Paw Maker)

Spine Cleaver just about managed to dodge and parry the blades coming out of nowhere. As he did, he slammed into the wall. When he looked up his three bodyguards, whom accompanied him everywhere, had already attacked the assassin. As the assassin stepped around the first two, he stabbed the third square in the neck. The assassin then swung the body around and placed himself behind it, blocking the two stabs from the two other Stormvermin.

Here Spine Cleaver saw an opening; he rushed to the assassin and swung his sword in a downward motion towards his assailant. The assassin saw the Warlord charge at him and take a swing. He pushed the dead Stormvermin into the other two, and then he jumped up on the back of the dead Skaven, and used it as a jumping board to launch himself over the arch of the sword’s strike. While in mid-air, he threw his only five throwing stars, two of which hit one of the remaining bodyguards. The rest hit amour and did not penetrate to cause damage. The Stormvermin who was hit could already feel his muscles start to overwork as the poison forced his body to work overtime trying to use up all of his energy. In a desperate attempt to get revenge he charged carelessly at the assassin, sprinting past Spine Cleaver who knew it was a wasted effort. Just as the assassin landed, and Spine Cleaver turned to face the assassin, the masked killer saw the idiotic rat rushing at him. Almost instantly, he ran at the bodyguard, and just before they collided, he threw his tail’s dagger to distract the Stormvermin. In the moment after he threw the dagger he jumped over the Stormvermin, stabbing him in the back and using him as a springboard too. Spine Cleaver seeing this readied himself against the oncoming barrage, with the shield from the first dead Stormvermin. The assassin slammed into Spine

Cleaver’s shield, almost breaking his arm, before jumping on. As he was flying over the last bodyguard, the bodyguard lashed out at the assassin, and cut his tail clean off. This disruption sent the assassin rolling on the floor slamming into a sharp corner, forcing the air out of his lungs. Under his breath he cursed, he just lost his fine movement control. No more fancy spins and jumps through the air without the steering abilities of a tail. Just as he regained the air in his lungs, the Stormvermin stood over him swinging his halberd downward. The assassin kicked the Stormvermin in the legs, with as much force as he could muster. This forced the bodyguard to fall to the ground. When the Stormvermin hit the ground, but before he realised it, the assassin stabbed him in the gut, leaving him to bleed out. When the assassin stood up, he felt a sharp pain in his side. The place where he had slammed into the wall had started to bleed a good deal. He knew he could pass out from this amount of blood loss. While all this happened, Spine Cleaver had slowly walked over to the assassin, to make sure he wasn’t caught unaware by some fancy jumps. The assassin threw his two last daggers at Spine Cleaver. A hit…

Slaughter (Clan Side-Teeth)

For a few seconds there was complete silence, before the dwarfen organ gun opened fire. The four shots come flying at the Skaven in front of the gate like thunder. The first shot hit a Clanrat flat in the chest, punching through, and hitting a second Clanrat square in the gut. The second shot hit a Clanrat in the head, causing the head to explode like a grenade, sending splinters out in all directions. One such splinter hit a Stormvermin in the neck causing him to choke to death. Another splinter hit a Clanrat in the eye penetrating through to the brain, killing the Clanrat instantly. The third shot punched the ribs out of three Clanrats and a Stormvermin, making them bleed to death. The fourth and final shot hit a Stormvermin’s shield, breaking his arm but doing no further damage. Right after the organ gun had caused disarray in the ranks of the Skaven, crossbow bolts from quarrellers came flying into all the weak points of the formations, killing at least two dozen Clanrats and a few Stormvermin.

Straight after this, the seven jezzails took their own pod shots at the dwarfs killing five of the very heavily armoured hammerers, making up the front line for the dwarfs. All of this took one to two seconds, and then the two lines charged at each other. The initial result was very high Skaven loses, and almost no dwarf loses, but as the battle dragged on the fighting got evened out by the Skavens overwhelming numbers. The only thing holding the dwarf line together was a dwarf lord tying down the main group of Stormvermin. Side Tooth decided this would not last long, and started to make his way down to the fighting. The Skaven made a tunnel for him through the formations, leading him straight to the dwarf lord. As the tunnel opened in front of the dwarf lord, he saw Side Tooth, and instantly recognised him as a Skaven Warlord. The filthy dwarf shouted a challenge at Side Tooth, whom just shrugged and pulled of his cape. Space was made for them to fight each other. Side Tooth checked the shield on his back to make sure he could let it fall down when needed. However, for now he had his sword and a javelin in his hands. The dwarf lord on the other hand, had his hammer and shield out, with a throwing axe resting at his side. They slowly started to circle each other, each waiting for the other to make a move.

Side Tooth grew impatient of this game very quickly. He used his sword to throw sand in his opponent’s eyes. As the dwarf lord protected his eyes, Side Tooth lashed out at the dwarf’s legs. The dwarf lord just managed to block the strike, with his hammer. In retaliation, he swung his hammer upwards at Side Tooth’s face. Side Tooth jumped back to dodge the attack. Before the dwarf had time to regain his balance, Side Tooth had thrown his javelin into the right leg of the dwarf. As the dwarf lord fell to his knees, Side Tooth strode over to his side, while taking down his shield. The dwarf lord tried to attack Side Tooth, but he kicked the hammer out of the dwarf’s hands. “Now the fun-fun begins old dwarf-thing…”

Display of worth (Clan Long Tail)

Black Tooth gestured for Twin-Tails to sit down and enjoy the show. Some of The 13 were looking nervously at each other. Black Tooth shouted for the other Stormvermin to gather up again. When they had all gathered in a blob around Black Tooth, he exclaimed, “Listen here you pathetic filth. You will try-try to work together to bring down-down, The 13 while they defend themselves. If you succeed, you will gain-gain extra food this night. If not you will not eat-eat. Understood?” The group of Stormvermin all muttered in agreement. As Black Tooth was walking back to Twin-Tails, everyone else picked up the training

staves, and made ready for a hard battle. They formed themselves into a circle, with The 13 inside. When Black Tooth arrived to the side of Twin-Tails again, Twin-Tails noted that The 13 didn’t have any weapons. Black Tooth smirked, and said, “They don’t need any.” Black Tooth raised his hand, and everyone’s muscles tensed. Black Tooth let his hand hover in the air, for a bit before swinging it down to signal to the Stormvermin to begin. The Circle surrounding The 13 quickly and suddenly charged at them. Within the first twenty seconds, nine Stormvermin were lying on the ground, beaten to a pulp. Between all the commotions, Twin-Tails saw that every single one of The 13 had armed themselves with staves from their opponents. Not five minutes went by, and every single one of the fifty-two Stormvermin were lying on the ground. Only one of The 13 were “seriously” hurt, with a broken arm, the rest had scratches and the like. Nevertheless, this had taken its toll on them, as they were all panting and sweating, a lot. Twin-Tails snickered; these were some truly formidable fighters. “Black Tooth,” Black Tooth looked worried at his leader, for using such a serious tone of voice. “you know-know we pride ourselves on elite warriors. These will-will be the elite of the elite. I want you to give-give them individual training.” Black Tooth was stunned for a moment; individual training was something extremely rare to happen,

even by the standards of Clan Long Tail. Black Tooth turned to Twin-Tails and whispered, “Are you-you sure, mighty Leader? What if they-they get too strong?” Twin-Tails snapped at him “Then make sure-sure they know their place, like you should-should.” Black Tooth instantly shut his mouth; he didn’t need to anger Twin-Tails, not when thirteen suitable replacements were standing less than a hundred meters from them. Twin-Tails having seen enough for the time being, decided to walk to the market. Clan Moulder should have arrived by now. As he was leaving he heard Black Tooth curse under his breath, surly he was angered by Twin-Tails risky choice in training The 13. However Twin-Tails could not care less, this was his clan, and his decisions to make, not some lowly underling. Now he needed to get his clan going then, total domination of the mountain.

Fun (Clan Side-Teeth)Side Tooth looked at the pathetic old dwarf-thing, still on his knees with his shield up to protect himself. Side Tooth could almost not contain his laughter; he had looked forward to playing with a dwarf-thing again. With a huge sly smile on his face, Side Tooth faked an attack with his sword, towards the dwarf’s right

side. Just as the dwarf lord moved his shield to protect himself, Side Tooth slammed his own shield into the waist of the dwarf, with as much power as a Skaven can muster. Side Tooth was sure he heard a crack from the dwarf’s bones breaking. However, just to be sure, before the dwarf came to his sense Side Tooth ripped the dwarf’s shield out of his hand, leading to his broken arm being thrown around. The dwarf let out a scream of pain; as Side Tooth heard this, he started to smile uncontrollably. Side Tooth kicked the dwarf on his back, and stood over him. Side Tooth drove his sword down through the dwarf lords other arm, pinning him to the ground. Side Tooth pulled off the dwarf’s helmet, and saw his face writhe in pain. Side Tooth could not contain himself anymore and started to rip of the dwarfs armour. As most of the dwarf’s amour was gone, Side Tooth started to drive his claws into the dwarf different places on his body, torturing him.