Mordheim

THE CONTINUING STORY OF THE NIGHTCUTTER'S OF CLAN ESHIN
By Tommy Punk

Assassin-Adept Tailslasher tore the paper to shreds with his crooked black claws. "Mordheim?" he muttered, "Mordheim? What is he doing in Mordheim?"

It was supposed to be a simple bodyguard mission. He had been ordered to take a break in the training of the Gutter Runners and accompany a Clan Skryre Warlock-Engineer on some kind of personal mission. He had thought that he could take the two Nightrunners with him and give them some personal training. If he were to journey to the far away manling city of Mordheim he would need his full team, this would cost Clan Skryre. It would cost them alot. But still he wondered, wasn’t that manling city being kept closed down by Clan Eshin? Still this order was from high up…

The lair was barely lit and the shadows played tricks on the assembled Skaven’s eyes. The only source of light originated from a small metal cage that contained a couple of glowing rocks. The band numbered almost two dozen and they were all dressed in black, most of them had strips of black cloth tied around their faces. This outfit combined with the shadows made it hard to spot the Skaven, which obviously was the intention.

"Listen up-up now" gnarled Tailslasher "this seem-seems like simple mission, but Im not so sure-sure. We are to escort-tail a Warlock-Engineer to the manling city of Mordheim. I don’t know-know what he is to do there, but orders come-come from high up. Rumour says that Clan Skryre has-has summoned a Daemon who broke-broke free and tore the city to pieces. Thats why the Nightlord is keeping the city seal-sealed. Also remember that Clan Skruten dissapeared somewhere in the Cursed Marches in the manling Empire, rumour say-say that they have a stronglair there and that Grey Seer Kritislik has-has taken the control. Now theWarlock want’s to leave-leave now so no time to gather much-much equipment. Half-half of you will stay behind and make all the preporations and come-come after us. Arm yourself and we leave-leave now."

He turned to the Black-furred Warpflicker, Venompaw and Gutslice, the only survivors of his last group of Gutter Runners. Once the Training-Adept feels that his group is ready to become assassins he will hunt them for 24 hours. Those that survive are promoted to Assassins, those that fail are left where they died. "Gutslice, you organise the group-group then come after us." The black-furred Skaven nodded and dissapeared into the shadows, and was followed by half the group. Venompaw placed a hardened leathercap on his head and strapped on his fighting claws, he sliced through the air a few times and snarled. Venompaw was deadly with those claws and he knew it. Warpflicker also placed a leathercap on his head but he picked up two long daggers instead, he would have prefered his Weeping Blades but he had no time to get them. The daggers are short enough to allow him to squeeze through narrow gaps but long enough to be used as swords. He also picked up a sling, he had used that weapon many times when both silence and range was of importance. It could be used to fire a hail of stones at close range, which allow you a good chanse to take out a pair of guards or pursuers. Tailslasher armed himself in the same fashion and for the same reasons, he too would have prefered Weeping Blades. Unfortunate circumstances had it that the group lacked the cases of throwing stars that they used at close range but they Gutslice was to make sure that the Weeping Blades and throwing stars all arrived safely in Mordheim, or his head would be loose. Gutslice would also bring with him the suits of light armour and leather armour. Chittertooth the Nightrunner already had his weapons on him, a club, a dagger and a sling. Once he had prooved himself in combat he would get real weapons. Nimbletail was also a Nightrunner but had prooved himself and was allowed to keep the sword that he had taken off a Clan Morr's Clanwarrior after he had sucessfully sneaked up behind him to strangle him with the garotte. They would only bring with them three Verminkin but they were the most promising from this group, they were armed with short stabbing spears and swords which they had trained to use in combination. They were also armed with slings, for the same reasons as Tailslahser and Warpflicker were.

They joined up with the Warlock half an hour later, he was travelling as light as them and after a formal nod Tailslaher took off for the main tunnel. The Warlock was armed with a strange looking spear, it was a mix if a spear, halberd and some arcane Clan Skryre device. He had a pistol tucked in his belt and numerous pouches that no doubt contained spell ingredients. The group used the tunnels to travel to the Black Chasm lair in Bretonnia, the lair was held by Clan Rictus but during the civilwar Clan Pestilens had made claims to the whole area of Bretonnia. The group approaced a watchjunction and the Warlock identified himself. After a Clanrat had run back to check they were let further into the tunnels. They were met at one of the larger tunnels and Tailslasher noticesed that the Warlock introduced himself as Engineer and not the higher rank of Warlock-Engineer. In fact the Warlock were paying a bit too much attention to the defensework of the lair. The Warlock delivered a small packaged and they left the lair. They had not travelled for more than a day until they came across a rather large band of Clan Pestilen Clanrats and Plague Monks. They seemed to be waiting for the Warlock and their leader, Plague Priest Lepri, and him had a long discussion. When they parted they were smiling and some amount of warptoken were changing hands.

Day 1 - Into the city

The Nightcutter's, which the group called themselves, surveyed the city from atop one of its towers. Perhaps the Daemon rumours were true after all, the city look quite smashed. But it was hard to make out any details in the center due to the smoke. This was not looking good thought Tailslasher, not good at all. They carefully made their way through the blocks of ruined houses and came across a marketplace. Warpflicker notified Tailslasher of movement on a main street and told him that he smelled manthings, but Tailslasher was already looking at a band of Stunties moving in from another street. Tailslasher smiled as the manlings and Stunties took up fighting positions, let them fight and then we finish them the thought. He noticed that many of the manlings moved very slow and a few of them were hunchbacks and they had wolves with them. Not all of them smelled like manthings, rather like a dead goblin. Suddenly a jezzail shot rang out and smashed one of the slowmoving humans into the ground, another band of Skaven had appeared in a ruin across the marketplace.

Tailslashers motioned to his Black Skaven and Night Runners to follow him as he darted from cover to cover to close with the manlings. The Stunties were hanging back and were concentrating their crossbows on the other Skaven and manling. As Tailslasher closed he noticed that the other Skaven were also moving for the manlings. He also noticed that the manlings were walking dead! "Undeads", he hissed. The other Skaven were closer to the Undeads and had already joined combat and were succesfully striking down a wolf and several zombies. Being hardpressed from the hail of crossbowbolts and the vicous Skaven the undeads retreated back on the street they had come from. This suited Tailslasher just fine as he rounded the corner of a shop and charged what he noticed was a Chief-Engineer of Clan Skyre. Warpflicker leaped upon a Stormvermin and the Nightrunners picked on a hapless slave. The puny Clan Skryre broke tail under this attack and Tailslasher and the Black Skaven turned around to double back towards the Stunties. The Nightrunners choose a different route to prevent the Stunties from encircling their band.

Meanwhile the Warlock had climbed up on a roof but for some reason was not firing his pistol, nor was he trying to climb back down. The verminkin were holed up in a ruin and under heavy crossbow fire, they were wise and kept their tails down. Tailslasher and the Black Skaven started to carefully move through the houses to encircle the Stunties, who in turn were backing together with their backs against each other and their crossbows ready. The Skaven were patiently waiting, only daring to stick their heads out for the occasional glimpse around the corners. Then the Stunties made a fatal mistake, they tried to retreat in an ordered fashion into a ruin and as soon as they moved the band darted forward. They did not have time to raise their crossbows but two naked Stunties with spiky orange ran out to meet the Skaven and sacrifice themselves. Tailslasher found himself fending off two Stunties but Warpflicker and a Verminkin were almost upon the Stunties that were huddling together when one of them fired a bolt that took the Verminkin out and somehow the bolt rickochetted and hit Tailslaher. The bolt tore half his face off and Tailslasher was thrown to the ground by the sudden injury and quickly scuttled away to avoid the Stunties. The other Skaven followed suit and the Stunties were all alone in the marketplace.

Tailslasher was very pleased with his new scar, it made him look really frightening and it would serve him well as an agent of terror. As night fell Chittertooth sneaked forward using the cover of the night to get to the well in the middle of the marketplace. Earlier in the battle he had notice the spark of a warpstone shard and was now intent on retrieving it for himself. However he managed to slip and halfdrowned before he got hold of the bucket and managed to climb out. His lungs were hurting, there was something not right with this water he thought. He had to rest the next day and would not able to partake in the next battle, Tailslasher would be most upset with him.

Day 2 – Occupying the marketplace

The next day the two Skaven warband were back at the marketplace where the Stunties had made their camp, from a side street an undead band entered though they were not the same band as yesterday. They had a manling breeder dressed in a fine silk gown as their leader and at her side was a male manling also dressed in fine clothes but with a dark scepter of some kind.

The Skaven were most definetly Clan Skryre and had at least one jezzail with them, the engineer hit a zombie with his first shot and smashed him into a wall. The undead were slowly making their way towards the building that the Eshin were using to observe the marketplace somehow they knew that they were there. On their right were the Stunties with their trice cursed crossbows, they were again taking up position in cover and waiting for the Skaven or Undeads to come within range of their crossbows.

The Clan Skryre warband had made a fatal mistake in pushing forward to fast toward the Undead and were fighting for their lives with the zombies. The group of Verminkin saw an opportunity and took out a zombie and a slave with their accurate slingarms, Tailslasher was pleased with their accuracy. Tailslasher motioned to Nimbletail and they quietly slipped away to attack the Stunties from up high. They were climbing to the top of a building when they noticed that two Stunties had used a ladder to already get there. The Assassin-Adept lept at the Stuntie leader and with a hail of sword slashes forced him off the roof, the Stuntie's scream was cut off by a loud crashing sound. At the same time Nimbletail were busy trying to fend himself against the onslaught of the other Stuntie and was being pressed down against the roof. A quick slash from Tailslashers sword caught the Stuntie on the side of his head and he stumpled off the roof as well. The sudden appearence of yet another Stuntie on the ladder caught Tailslasher by surprise and Nimbletail was taken out by a hammerblow just as he was picking himself up. In the house the group of Verminkin had retreated to the topfloor as zombies and wolves had entered their building.

This was not looking good and Tailslasher motioned to the Verminkin to follow him, better to leave now before the Undead were upon them he thought. As the Eshin band ran they noticed that the Skryre band were also running. The undead were making their way around the ruins and the Stunties suddenly found that they were beset by wolves and were retreating, leaving the ruins to the Undead. The Undead's leaders seemed almost surprised to be in possession of the ruins.

Nimbletail had been badly hurt by the hammerblow and was unconcious for a whole day. The Verminkin had obviously picked up some skill with their slings and were indeed deadly with their slings. Nimbletail and Chittertooth had trained their sling arm and were now able to shoot a slingstone the same range as a manling could shoot with his bow. Tailslasher noticed that the warpstone in this city had a distinct smell that he was able to pick up by his keen senses. Gutslice had sent a in advance Verminkin with some muchneeded equipment and he arrived with half a dozen leatherharnesk’s and a blowpipe which Chittertooth had been training with him before they left.

In’it Pain was still a mystery. Despite climbing to a good elevated position he had not even tried to fire his pistol nor had he used any of his sorcery. He claimed to have been out of range, but was it a coincidence that this had happened when we faced a warband of his own clan. And how had they arrived in Mordheim? If Clan Skryre could send a warband of their own here why did we have to escort him here? What were Clan Skryre and Clan Pestilens planning for the Black Chasm? Would a takeover affect the civilwar? Would Clan Skryre and Clan Pestilen join forces? Clan Skryre controls the temple and Clan Pestilens is the strongest clan in the fighting. Were Clan Skryre responsible for the destruction of this manling city? Was this a new weapin to be used in Skavenblight?

Day 3 – Breaking through the Elven line

The next day the warband was making their way through a particularly ruined cityblock, most streets were blocked off and they had had to double back several times to push forward. Chittertooth had been scouting ahead and returned with news that an Elf band had made camp in a junction that seemed to be open. The Elves had arranged themselves in a thin line with only a few barricades as cover, this would be no problem thought Tailslasher.

Warpflicker darted forward but was spotted by four elves who fired their longbows despite the long range and cover, Warpflicker went down with four arrows in him. Tailslasher retaliated by targetting an Elf who was dressed in a blue dress with stars and cresents on it, the slingstone hit him in the head and he fall to the ground with blood running down his face. One of the Verminkin leapt upon an Elf with a rather long sword and pierced him with his spear. Tailslasher was hit by a bowshot and all went black, but with the loss of their greatest warriors the Elves decided to leave.

When Tailslasher regain concious he found that someone had robbed him of his sword and armour! Warpflickers arm had become infected by the elfarrow and the band was forced to amputate it, Warpflicker objected of course but was persuaded by the combined strength of 6 Skaven. Warpflicker decided not to let the elves get to him and picked up his sword by his tail instead, determined to wield it as he had used his arm. In’it Pain claimed one of the Warpstone shards as his own and inserted it in his weirdlooking polearm. The blade spat with tiny lightning and the Warlock demonstrated the power of his Skryre weapon on a nearby rat who was hit by a bolt of lightning and exploded.

As the warband visited Shantytown to resupply they walked past a fighting pit where an Elf Swordmaster was facing a pitfighter. The Elf charged in but the pit fighter easily shrugged off his blow, and then proceeded to batter the Elf senseless with his morningstar. The uncouncious Elf was thrown out of shantytown with not even his silk underwar to cover him up. Tailslasher sent Chittertooth to buy him a spear, sword and armour. Whoever robbed him would pay dearly.

Day 4 Occupying the block

After spending a night in the bars of Shantytown the warband returned to the city and made their way to the junction where they had defeated the elves. The smell was not different this day, the elves from yesterday had came back as well to the same cityblock. Tailslasher laughed out loud as he motioned to his Skaven to fan out, the Nightcutter's would keep control of this accesspoint to the inner city.

In’it Pain ran forward towards the nearest Elf and unleashed three bolts from his arcane weapon into the Elf, whos blackened body fell and hit the street below. Chittertooth was hiding near a ruined wall and brought his blowpipe to bear on an Elf warrior. The silent attack hit him in the neck and the Elf quickly succumbed to the poison and fell to the ground. Venompaw slipped behind cover but was hit by an arrow in the thigh and was not able to move out again. A Swordmaster spotted Nimbletail but he used his smaller size and great speed to evade the blows of the Elf who in turn easily parried the Skaven's stabs. The elven leader in blue dress suddenly appeared next to a Verminkin. The Skaven kept his nerves in check even though the Elf had a horrifying twisted face, obviously a battle wound from the last fight. Despite his resolve the Skaven failed to hit the Elf but the Elf was obviously frightened by the prospect of fighting this Skaven alone and dissapear again. The Elf band decided that they should find another access point and leaves the fight. This was a tough fight, the Skaven and Elves had almost the same speed but the Elves had a longer reach with their bows than the bows that the Manthings were using.

After the fight Nimbletail finds a straggler in a ruin and Tailslasher sell him as a slave in Shantytown. Tailslasher seems a bit tougher after being wounded so many times and is now twice as hard to bring down. The Verminkin had trained well and were using their spear and sword combination to rain a resentless number of attacks on their opponents.

Day 5 – Defend the find

Tailslasher tasted the air, "Warpstone" he hissed, "there are Warpstone in that ruin" and pointed to a two store building in the middle of the block. Appearently a group of Stunties had already found this building and were lining the windows.

The warband opens up with a hail of lightningbolts and slingstones and take three Stunties out. In’it Pain then move around a corner and take another sturnie out with an accurate Warplock pistol shot. The Stunties retaliate and Venompaw is taken out by massive amount of crossbow fire, appearently quite a few of the Stunties can fire twice as fast with their crossbows as their brothers.

The Stunties wisely turned and fled but Venompaw was found to be dead, that was a serious loss. To add insult Warpflicker managed to slip when he tried to climb down a well after a shard of Warpstone and hit his head hard and was knocked out cold. Tailslasher found a suit of ligh armour and a handful of gold crowns in a nearby shop. In’it Pain showed off with another of his tricks as he called upon three rats to come to his side and fight for him. Chittertooth had trained a sure eye with his blowpipe and was able to trickshoot through any cover.

Day 6 – Streetfight

The warband was making their way through a narrow winding street, the houses were close to each other here and the band could only follow the street forward. As they rounded a corner they saw a band of Stunties down the street. With no other way past the Stunties Tailslasher motioned to the Skaven to race forward to close the distance. Tailslasher climbed up on a rooftop and tried to use the rooftops to jump on but slipped on a loose tile and hit his head on the pavement below. That was not a graceful display of sure feet and it took several minutes for Tailslasher to recover. The Stunties knew that they had the advantage of longer range and remained still and fired but found that they were yet out of range. The Skaven darted forward using the corner of houses as cover and fired a hail of stones that forced the Stunties to back up a bit. This provided the Skaven with the breathing space to close the distance without being shot to pieces and leaped on the Stunties. The Skaven were all over the Stunites and only a single Stuntie managed to flee down the street.

Day 7 – Treasure hunt

Tailslasher had overheard a rumour that a building would contain a hidden treasure chest but he was only sure on which city block to look in. Appearently an Elf band and a Stuntie band had heard the same rumour and was already looking into buildings. The three warbands moved to take up positions to fire upon each other and Tailslasher kick the door in on a building to look for the chest. He smiled to himself as he realise that he has found the chest in the very first building and quickly carry it off to safety. The elves and Stunties are too far away to intercept the Skaven.

Day 8 – Chance encounter

It had been a good day and the band had found three Warpstone shards and were moving back to the hideout when they almost stumbled upon a Stuntie and an Elf band. The three warbands stood looking at each other for a few seconds before they started to scream orders and warnings and darting for cover. The Elves vere the fastest to get their bows up and In’it Pain and two Verminkin were taken out by a hail of arrows. Then Warpflicker and Tailslasher were locked in combat with three Trollslayers and decided to leave quietly after dispatching them. The warband would have to cross over a lot of ground to ge to the other bands and the Stunties and Elves were engaged in a missile duel. It would be foolish to move in between their sides, and they had three Skaven down. They did drag a knocked out Elf with them and back at the camp In’it Pain tortured him by calling forth a ratswarm who ran all over the elf. That was a new trick and could even be used in the heat of a fight against the enemies. One of the Verminkin was found to be dead, an arrow had pierced his eye, but he was replaced by the Verminkin hat had arrived a few days earlier with supplies.

Day 9 - Defend the find

The Eshin warband had found a ruined smithy when a band of possessed appeared to contest it. The Skaven quickly took up position to defend their find.

The Chaos worshippers tried to encircle the Skaven but the Skaven's deployment allowed them to keep the brethren at bay with a hail of stones. Warpflicker and Tailslasher guarded a door together and were beset by three Beastmen, who were quite hard to take care of but at least they didn't break into the building. Three Brethren tried to sneak into the ruin but were intercepted by a giant rat. In’it Pain then leaned out a window and called a ratswarm to devour one Brethren who dissapeared under a furry mass of rats. A hideous possessed were kept stunned by two of the Verminkin who covered one side all by themselves. A Brethren came very close to a hole in the wall but an accurate hail of stones stunned him and Nimbletail lept at him from the 2ndfloor and bashed his head in. Warflicker and Tailslasher finally managed to take out the Beastmen and Chittertooth took the Magister out with a poison dart. At last the cultists morale broke and they fled the block.

When the Skaven searched the smithy they found two halberds. Later that night Gutslice arrived with three Verminkin and three cases of equipment. The three battlehardened Verminkin armed themselves with leather armour while Warpflicker, Tailslasher and Nimbletail picked up lucky charms. Gutslice was armed with a pair of fighting claws and a leathercap. The three Verminkin that had arrived with him were armed with long spears and slings. In addition they had encountered a rival Skaven warband on the way and had succesfully ambushed them, the thre survivors were given slings and allowed to participate in the battles. At other times they would be chained up in the bands hideout. One of the Verminkin had been seperated from the group and was carrying the bands supply of throwing stars and two pairs of weeping blades that Gutslice had managed to get his hands on. The warband were almost at full strength now and eager to sink their teeth into the next band of opponents.

Day 10 - Skirmish

The group advanced carefully as they knew that the band of elves that they had encountered earliler was nearby. Tailslashers sneered as he spotted their leader and motioned for the band to split up in two groups, they would encircle the elves and tear them to pieces. The elves used their greater agility to climp two towers but had spent too much time to reach the top to be able to fire their elfbows. Tailslasher was moving along the ground with half the warband and noticed two elves on the tower above him but more importantly three elves around the corner in front of him. Tailslasher kicked the giant rats and sent them scuttling forward. The Elven Swordmasters and a warrior prefered to get the momentum of the charge and charged the rats, they only manage to slice one of them up though. This left the elves open for a devastating charge by Tailslasher, Warpflicker and three verminkin. The elves were butchered and their warband turned and fled. After the battle Gutslice found an imperial breast plate in an overturned cart and quickly put it on.

Day 11 - Occoupy

Tailslasher lead his warband forward, the stench of undeath was in the air he motioned to Nimbletail, Chittertooth and In'it Pain to climb to the top of a tower to get a good overview. Tailslasher, Warpflicker and three Verminkin climbed on top of a wallsection and moved along it to access another tower. Appearently the undeads had decided to try to climp ontop of another wallsection and a tower and ended up moving into line of sight of Nimbletail, Chittertooth and In'it Pain one at a time. This became a real killing ground with almost the entire Skaven warband located on top of wall sections or towers, raining slingshots and spells down on their unfortunate opponents. The killing ended with the 8th member of an 11 member strong warband being taken out of action by yet another deadly accurate slingshot, the undeads wisely turned around and fled.

The warband found a Mordheim Map in an overturned cart, which turned out to be one of the 12 master maps made for Count von Steinhardt of Ostermark. Tailslashers immediatly claimed the map and snatched it from the hands of In´it Pain which caused some unrest in the warband but the Warlock-Engineer didn't stress the question of leadership. This was one of the most important traits for surviving in the Skaven society, everthing has its time and vengeance and confrontation work best after a nights sleep. First of all when an argument has heated up your opponent will be worked up and battle ready, second if you wait a night you can catch your opponent with his back to you.

Day 12 - Occupy

It was morning, and four warband had lined up to fight over the control of six buildings and their rumoured treasure. The elves climbed to occupy two towers but Warpflicker and three Verminkin moved to intercept them. Warpflicker threw an Elf Ranger off the tower and the Elves consolidated in the other tower. A band of Witchhunters clashed with the Undead warband from the day before and were locked in a bitter struggle and Tailslasher and Nimbletail singlehandedly engaged the remaining undeads in the fight over one ruined house. The opponents suddenly left all at the same time leaving the Skaven in possession of the buildings of which they already controlled four.

Another four Verminkin arrived with what seemed to be the last of the Nightcutters equipment. Tailslasher was pleased to see that the Deathmaster had sent him "The tooth of the Revenant" as a personal gift. This was a fang taken from the Vampire Count Rudolph Mann after his assassination at the hands of the Deathmaster himself. Rumour has it that a wealthy Order of Sigmar known as the Order of the Furious Hammer had paid a Thieves Guild to hire a reliable assassin to take care of a tainted imperial noble that threatened their interests. Its ironical that the job was carried out by their hated adversaries. In'it Pain was pleased to see that a package from Clan Skyre had gotten through as well and smiled as he hung the Warpstone Pendulum and Lucky Charm around his neck and loaded his Warplock Pistol with superiour gunpowder, in addition his aim had improved considerable with his stay in Mordheim.

Chittertooth picked up a lucky charm as well and displayed a flashy skill of being able to regain his footing almost immediatly when knocked to the ground. This would catch his oppenents unprepared the times that he was caught in an open fight. Nimbletail once again displayed a near perfect aim with his sling and now rivals the marksmanship of the most famous and renowned imperial archer champions. Gutslice prooved to be a valuable asset as he demonstrated the difficult fighting style known as the Art of Silent Death, coupled with his fighting claws he will proove most dangerous at close quarters. One group of verminkin showed signs of having great confident in their own abilities and another group showed a greater aim with their slings. Tailslasher is now rightly feared by his companions as he can withstand three blows that would have killed a manthing and can rain a furious amount of accurate sword blows in close combat He is only outskilled in close combat by Warpflicker who despite his amputated arm has mastered the use of two swords with his right arm and tail. His skills allow him to drop four manthings at the same time and his agility match that of the skinny Elves.