Thanquol's Assault

Thanquol launched his initial assault against the dwarfs of the Blackwall mountains upon the small brewing colony of Angrund. by bringing together the two largest skaven clans of the Blackwall mountains his main goal was to present a large enough army to force the dwarfs to the field and once there kill as many of their command structure as possible. If he could force an entry into the dwarfs' underground lair as well then he would be doubly impressed.

By bringing both skaven clans out together he could watch them for any duplicitous deeds, drawing out his enemies within and finding willing pawns that he could use to keep the others in line.

Thanquol dusted himself off and looked around. He wasn't exactly sure where his hastily cast Skitterleap had taken him. The cavern smelt dank but familiar. It was somewhere in Snikkitsdeep at least. Thanquol could faintly hear the pistons and pressure release valves that let him know that lughead, Boneripper, was somewhere close. He was going to have to have words with Ikit Claw about the stupidity of this one.

Warlord Snikkit thought he was being clever did he, taking his orders at their exact wording. The whole assault was designed to eliminate as many of the dwarf command as possible, and if fortunate enough force another entry into their underground lair. It was also designed to test the defences of the dwarfs and draw out any opposition to his new reign as first and foremost commander of all the Skaven of the Blackwall mountains. He had given Snikkit his generosity and patronage for the moment, but was prepared to replace Grey Seer Touratts and guide Warlord ___ if Snikkit proved useless. 

The battle had been going rather well, Snikkit's engineers were showing off all their new gadgets and weapons, and they were reaping an impressive tally. Those filthy clanrats were unable to hold the dwarfs off for long enough though and soon the Dwarf general was upon him. Him, High Lord Thanquol, Prophet of the Horned Rat, and the clanrats couldn't (or wouldn't ...) protect him. The Dwarf's axe had bitten deep into Bonerippers side, but the wound was minor. At least Ikit had done something right in that regard, or perhaps Throt should get the reward for that.

Thanquols' senses had been on high alert when he saw Snikkit's stormvermin stop their assault on the Dwarf Hall and turn to face him. While Boneripper was failing to make a dent in that horrible smelling dwarf lord, Thanquol looked around just in time to see the warplightning cannon on his right turn to face him. As the cannon powered up, Thanquol hastily skitterleaped himself and Boneripper out of danger. The shot must have blasted the dwarf lord to pieces, and he was sure that that was a lucky coincidence, one that will be jumped on by Snikkit.

Mighty Thanquol hadn't relied entirely on the two clans to rid the dwarfs of leadership. He had paid a lot of warptokens to gain the services of Clan Eshin's best and they had failed him. Hopefully they had perished in battle, it was all they deserved. The gutter runners had done an admirable job in silencing the warmachines though. He would see that any survivors gained his favour and the blessing of the Horned Rat. He needed some new spies in this part of the world.

The most unnerving part of the day's occurrences however had been the arrival of the Verminlord. How had that snivelling wretch of a grey seer, Touratts, managed to summon a Verminlord at such short notice? Thanquol had only told them of the assault the day before in order to minimise their scheming. A Vermin Lord, and a Deceiver at that, those shadowy Lords scared Thanquol the most. He had tried to act calm when it appeared behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief when it skitterleaped to the other side of the battlefield. Yet the whole time he could feel its eyes lingering on him, could sense them seeing straight through him and laying his grand plans out. It seems their plans had somewhat aligned at this time for the Deceiver had made no move to communicate with Thanquol. He hadn't seen Grey Seer Touratts on the battlefield either, hopefully he had botched the summoning and the Verminlord had claimed his soul. But Thanquol never got that lucky.

He began the long walk back to his new lair-den at the heart of Snikkitsdeep, plotting the many amusing ways he was going to humiliate those who had humiliated him so much over the past few days. Heads will roll when he and Boneripper return, and the first ones will be the engineer in charge of the cannon battery.