DWARFS OF CHAOS WARHAMMER

some marvelous enhancement in black powder, and the Burgomaster was directed by the Elector himself to learn
their secrets. Nuln is the center of the Imperial Artillery School, so obviously this was of great importance to them.
And that is what the Burgomaster told me, and why no sooner had I been told then a great host of forty wagons
were assembled. We had a company of halberdiers and swordsman with us, and hunstman rovers with great hounds,
and a wing of Myrmidian Templars. There were even Tilean crossbows and demilancers, though I never got their
numbers straight – they would inflate them for more pay.
‘Through the Blackfire Pass we would go. It’s the only route through the mountains, though as such it be deadly.
That be where Sigmar once tread, lad, slaying orcs in their thousands. We had no such aspirations, and hoped to
move swiftly and unsullied through the mountains to the Silver Road and then beyond into the wastes. And we did,
and were greatly relieved. For a time.’
“Where are Kurt and the lads?” Fritz rested his hands on his sword belt and peered up into the black, craggy hills
to either side of them, his eyes thinning to green slivers. His sergeant’s medallion swung lazily on its heavy chain
of polished silver. “The man’s the most anal soldier I’ve ever met, ‘Fifteen minutes early is on time’. There mus be
trouble.”
“Sir, these crags are treacherous. It may just be slow going.”
“I ain’t buyin’ it, Peter. If you smell trouble in the Wastes there’s sure-as-shit trouble. Get to the top of that hill and
see what’s to be seen.” Fritz looked down to the trundling caravan below them and the weary soldiers flanking it to
either side. They pressed hard through the Blackfire and it had paid off, but an ambush now would be...
Fritz rubbed his irritated nose pink as Peter scrambled up the hill, a vain effort to rid himself of the sulfurous
stench that pervaded the Black Lands. Peter paused slightly doubled, and he could see his chest heaving with effort.
He looked at his hand and cradled it for a moment before grunting and continuing his upward trek. A good lad,
Peter, if a little wide around the belly. Not as Veteran as Fritz, not nearly, but a hard man used to soldiering, and
unquestioning. Ten feet. Fritz really hoped Peter saw them, but his stomach was churning and his hand gripping his
sword hilt turned white. Damned.
Peter reached the top and rested his hands on his knees, his head swiveling about. “Fritz, I don’t- Wait a minute I see
something. I think it’s them! Hurrah! Hurrah there Kurt!” He began to wave his hand above his head, and was glad
he hadn’t climbed the hill for nothing.
Smiling now, Fritz cupped his ears for a better listen and watched Peter intently. He blinked away the irritating air
for a moment, and had a sudden thought of his wife’s smiling, freckled face looking back at him, shimmering copper
curls tumbling about her shoulders. She was running in the open field outside Nuln, where they talked of building a
cottage, and she was madly happy. So strange to think of her now, here in this waste.
Then there was screaming, and Peter was falling towards him, a half-dozen arrows fletched the color of blood
protruding from his chest. Over the crest of the hill they came, lanky frames in coal-black robes with snarling,
frothing mouths filled with pointed teeth. And they were green-skinned.
88 The Dwarfs of Chaos unofficial i n d y g t a r m y b o o k