Assault of Pfungzig

One tiny mistake and he had lost so much, one miniscule miscalculation. Grey Seer Gnawlitch Shun rued that tiny decision in the battle of the Deeping Cavern against the bearded ones. If he’d ordered Chieftain Grakkt to lead the ambush instead of Slick-Paw then perhaps they’d have arrived on time and his rise would have been assured. But now here he was, dumped to obscurity, given a posting with some backwater clan. True, he had been treated with the utmost deference and respect due his station by the Warlord Snikkit, but there was no doubt that Snikkit still controlled this clan - at the behest of Ikit Claw himself.

After months of dealings, and a not insignificant amount of warptokens, Gnawlitch Shun felt he was in a reasonable enough position to begin Snikkit’s downfall.

Snikkit had ruled with an iron claw, rewarding frugally and punishing freely, so opposition was easy to find, however determining if that opposition was already tied to other powers was the difficult part.

***

The pompous, over confident Seer, Gnawlitch Shun, had been a thorn in Snikkit’s side since he returned from a successful campaign in the Southlands. Retuning to Ikit Claw with barrow loads full of warpstone had continued his rise as a warlord to be feared. With enough freedom from Ikit Claw to pursue his own devices, but still being tasked with grand missions, Snikkit was starting to build a strong reputation. This was now being tested. Over the last few months Ikit Claw had sent several Grey Seers to oversee Snikkit’s operations. Snikkit assumed these were thrust onto him to give Ikit breathing room, but each had come with secret orders for tunnel collapse, misfires, and lab explosions. The order for accidents to occur had not come through for Gnawlitch Shun yet, it seemed in this seer Ikit had finally found someone he could control (though special ‘adjustments’ had been made to his screaming bell).

Gnawlitch Shun wasn’t as furtive as he thought he was in his dealings with members of Snikkit’s own council. It seemed he had picked out Engineer Fizzel and was working on winning his loyalty, and chieftain Tratch as well. This, Snikkit had decided, he would use to his own end, and orders were sent for compliance from those two, as well as information on the Seer’s plans.

The unannounced arrival of Ikit Claw drew much excitement and activity in the dens of Snikkitsdeep. Labs were prepared showing the more boring of the engineers’ new creations, testing demonstrations were set up and the more rebellious of clawpack leaders given duties far from the main chambers. Ikit Claw’s tour did not last long, after selecting several inventions to return to skavenblight, he met with Snikkit in the grand chamber. With masses of Snikkit’s finest warriors in attendance, Ikit Claw declared the clan would embark on a new mission for the Council itself. Snikkit’s clan would lead the Skryre effort in a large undertaking of mass assaults on the outlying cities of Averland. The Council deemed that destabilising the countryside would draw valuable resources from the capital leaving it ready for the main attack. Pfungzig, being a large river city, would be a tough nut to crack, and the job fell to clan Skryre to crack it. Ikit stressed the need to do this quick-quick as Pfungzig was a long way from Averheim, and Ikit wanted a large Skryre force with him to claim the most reward there.

***

The clan was on the move, Pfungzig was the prize, and Gnawlitch Shun was determined to be the one that claimed it. Hastily putting the finishing touches on his plans he met with Snikkit to discuss the final battleplan.

Snikkit’s plans for the fall of the city were simple enough that the clawpacks could do it, but brilliant enough that it would happen quickly and he could move to Averheim and lead alongside Ikit Claw. The Seer had been a thorn throughout the planning process, always angling to put himself in the middle of the assault, far enough from the fighting to stay safe, but close enough to still claim the city for himself. The majority of the force was to move underground and arrive at the city unannounced, with a smaller force marching above ground, hoping to draw some of the city defenders out and destroy them outside the walls. Snikkit will personally lead the above ground force, knowing his leadership will be needed to deal with any unexpected enemy. In order to satiate Gnawlitch Shun’s grand dreams he would lead the underground force with all the pomposity he was due. Tunnels were widened to accommodate his screaming bell and all energy was expended to ensure the Grey Seer felt he was treated as having already taken the city. Snikkit hoped that by appeasing the Grey Seer it would keep him out of Snikkit’s whiskers. To further this Snikkit even accepted to offer Gnawlitch Shun the services of Fizzel, and Tratch to bear a grand standard of the Grey Seer’s own design.

Outskirts of the City

The overland portion of Snikkits army had done its job, a small force was drawn away from the city walls to try and buy some time for the city’s defenders. Seeing the black and gold clad soldiers standing amongst the buildings of this small town, Snikkit expected a reasonably quick and easy battle. His force outnumbered them body for body by about 4:1. They had a steam tank, but his skyre adepts should be able to deal with that, if not he could drown it in slaves. The knights were another problem, but he had globadiers and jezzails to deal with those. Zitleek brought his warp-musket and enhanced goggles to deal with sneaky mages. He couldn’t see anything in particular that would give him concern.

However a squeek of fear quashed his confidence somewhat. The musk of fear was strong around Zitleek, and looking over at him he could see fear etched on the engineer’s face.

“Magic user strong-strong” he wailed, “comet-rock coming closer.” 

Snikkit looked up and thought he could faintly see a strange shape in the sky above, it might be getting bigger, but he couldn’t quite tell. If it was, he needed to be through this army and on his way to the city, he ordered his army to advance.

In the centre Snikkit surged forwards surrounded by his black furred stormvermin, clawpacks on either side, he intended to smash about the small unit of soldiers with large swords standing in front of him. As his charge began to gain momentum a cloaked figure in front of him drew forth pistols and fired. One of the shots took him through the forearm, but Snikkit’s blood was up, and a small wound like this wasn’t going to stop him.

Spying the steam tank rumble towards the slaves on the right flank, Kasqit abruptly turned his doomwheel about face and sped towards the metallic behemoth. As he drew close enough, he released the pressure built in the warp condensers, releasing blinding bolts of pure warplightning. Attracted to the metallic body, the lightning played around the hulk of the tank, but couldn’t stop it from its grinding work on the slaves to its front and side. With a deafening clang and screeching of metal on metal, the charge of the doomwheel hit home, rough spikes piercing its shell, yet still the tank ground on

To his left the packmasters of clan moulder urged their monstrous mutants forwards. The rat ogres didn’t need much persuasion as the nobles of the empire rode towards them, lances levelled and pistols firing.

The battle was to be won or lost in the centre. Snikkit’s personal guards were taking a heavy toll on the greatswords, but were in turn being whittled down by the fervent belief of the Averlander soldiers. It was growing tense, and Snikkit urged the black furred skaven to fight harder. As the corpses started to outnumber the living, Snikkit felt a hunger build deep within himself, looking around at his stormvermin he could see the manic look in their eyes too. Their wild sweeps of halberd grew faster and more frantic. The frenzied skaven finally started to get on top as they surged forwards, those at the back however turned on their brethren, ripping them apart. While his mind was slowly giving in to an animalistic hunger, he registered seeing the doomflayer crash into the greatswords at the same time as Assassin Quickpaw leapt from the clanrats unit, slicing his way through greatswords. Eventually the last of the stoic men fell with Quickpaw launching after the fleeing wizard, then everything went dark and Snikkit succumbed to the urge to feed, tearing into the slain, friends and foes alike.

The Siege

Unfortunately I didn't write anything soon enough after the battle to be able to write a suitable battle report. So all I've got are the photos

With enough forwarning the city was able to prepare itself for the impending horde of rats.

The plague monks and stormvermin pushed their siege towers to the walls, and the ensuing bloody combat resulted in the defenders being pushed back. With two sections of walls controlled by the Skaven the situation was starting to look dire for the defenders.

With the melee erupting upon and in front of the walls, the distraction allowed Deathmaster Snikch and his gutter runners to pressure the defenders within

Whatever comes through those gates, you are men of the Empire and you will hold your ground.

With a rumble and a crash the gates burst open and the foul, bloated monstrosity of the Hellpit Abomination burst through

With the walls and gate breached the skaven were given free reign of the walls. The city was as good as lost, and the arrival of the knights in front of the city were unable to save it.