DWARFS OF CHAOS WARHAMMER

Maggaz Shagga dropped his battle axe as it lodged
in the skull of a particularly stupid orc; the death
throes of a half-starved wretch tugged his halberd
from his grasp, and now he fought through the
mob with a choppa in each hand, his massive black form
the centre of a blizzard of steel and blood.
The enemy was little more than a mob of panicked and
terrified bodies, the front ranks pushing away from him
as the back ranks were driven inexorably on. Maggaz
opened his tusk-toothed jaws and bellowed with joy. He
was drenched from tooth to clawed toes in gore, and
hadn’t enjoyed a fight so much since the day he had ripped
Gromril Blue’s beard from his stunty chin, and stuffed it
down the old dwarf’s throat.
Something stung his cheek, but Maggaz barely felt it as
he caught the next whip blow on his wrist, and dragged
the wielder towards him. The hobgoblin was dispatched
with a contemptuous flick of a choppa, and its stupidly
grinning head flew to the crest of the hill, where the last
of the enemy lingered in a small and cowering knot.
Maggaz wiped his eyes clear so he could focus on them.
Behind him scuttled the tribes of cave goblins he had
brutally united: the Yellow Skulls, Rats Teef and Night
Stabbas. They were suddenly brave now that they
outnumbered the enemy five to one.
Maggaz took three great strides forward. His nostrils
snorted: Black Stunties. A hundred of them lined up
in neat ranks. Maggaz strode forward as the disciplined
ranks raised their fire-sticks towards him, and bellowed in
contempt. Gromril Blue had peppered him with blackshot,
but that had not stopped him from chopping his
hearth-guards into squig food.
With a great roar Maggaz Shagga led the goblin hide
forward as the fire-sticks fired in a great gout of
thunder….
…Huzziya used the end of the blunderbuss to prod the
black orc awake. All about them were the shredded
bodies of gobbos, and although the black orc had been hit
more than fifty times and its tusks shorn off, the great
black chest still heaved with effort.
Huzziya kicked the creature till it opened one bloodshot
eye and peered up the tightly ringed beard to a dark and
forbidding face.
From the depths of the beard the dwarf spoke in a low
and hard voice, and to Maggaz’s amazement he slowly
realised that he could understand what was being said.
He let out a great roar, but the dwarf made a sound like
cracking stone that the black orc realised was laughter.
The black orc was too weak to roar, too weak to even lift
his fist and throttle the creatures.
Huzziya wadded the charge and scrap-shot down the
barrel and put his foot on the black orc’s lower jaw and
pried it open wide enough to get his blunderbuss in.
You could bring some feral black orcs under control, but
most of them were too wild and independent and there
was but one thing for them, he thought as he refilled the
spark pan with black powder and blew on the fuse till it
glowed a hot and evil red.
86 The Dwarfs of Chaos unofficial i n d y g t a r m y b o o k