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Fiction The Extermination

Training newly hatched beasts, and having them ready to ride in a week seemed a bit of a stretch, but pacing demanded that these things be ready. But who knows, maybe riding a beast that isn't quite ready and still too young may have dire consequences, then again it may just get glossed over. Don't focus too much on logic. Rat people are fighting against short angry guys and the manifested imaginary friends of a floating all powerful frog. Continue suspending the disbelief.
 
Chapter 12
Greyseer Antler had started placing his orders.
Assassins and runners of both kind.
Hellpit abominations, rat ogres, and all the pack masters they could find.
Weapons teams, Stormfiends, doomwheels, cannons, Jezzails.
Plaguemonks plague priests, a furnace and those guys with flails.
Now to secure the verminous horde.
He wondered if it would be two or just one warlord.
The beardthings had unrefined warpstone, the precious green.
The time to strike would be when the clock chimed thirteen.

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Ghost Shadowstab had orders to assassinate Warlord Cutthroat and the creature 1138. Lucky timing. Nosqueak should be devising a way to take him out as well. Perfect backup plan. Ghost sank into the shadows ready for some blood.

Chieftain Jynx Ouchcurse showed a letter, bearing Cutthroat's symbol on it, to Warlord Nosqueak. "He say it urgent. Orders of Greyseer Antler. "
Nosqueak read it. Formalities and such requesting a strategy meeting. He grabbed some trinkets and his weapons and followed his chieftain to the location.
"Greetings friend." Called Cutthroat.
“Quick now, follow us. Don't want the kids to hear the big surprises." He held the door for his guests. They followed the warlord down a long corridor to a secret passage. They entered and Warlord Cutthroat shut the door.
"Welcome to my war room. I know we met before. I know the markings on your fur. I know the scar on your throat."
Twitch twitched his whiskers.
"I gave it to you. Probably about the time I was a treacherous chieftain like that one." He pointed to Jynx.
"Too bad you didn't cut deep enough." Said the newest member of Clan Hanta.
Nosqueak smiled at his former squeaker.
"Your fur patterns look the same as a warlord I used to work for. Thought I killed all his pups, and fed them to the slaves. Guess they must have liked you. I don't."
Jynx went to position himself behind Twitch. Twitch grabbed one of the trinkets from his pocket and pushed a button on it. Jynx screeched in pain as three large spikes dug into his throat from the collar. Then the collar exploded. A geyser of blood shot from the now headless neck of Jynx Ouchcurse. Chunks of what used to be his head scattered about the room.
Warlord Cutthroat laughed maniacally.
"I guess I'm not the only one with surprises today."
Twitch glared at him.
Daring him to get close.
The warlord turned his back on Twitch and walked to a curtain. He drew the curtain aside. There stood creature 1138 next to a black cloaked figure chained to the wall.
"Speak now if you have heard this one. Do you know Ghost Shadowstab? Of course you do. Had to hire this little assassin to assassinate me. Came very close. Did you know she was a doe? Of course you did. Hey 1138 do you think that they..."
Twitch twitched.
"Oh she's waking up. Wakey wakey lazy bones."
Ghost felt groggy, her head felt too heavy. Stupid she thought. How did she not see the trap coming? Careless. "Nobody is getting out alive." Ghost managed to sound fairly convincing.
"1138, check her for pups."
Creature 1138 bit into her abdomen and ripped out a large chunk. Ghost cried out as the blood started pouring from the stomach.
"Nothing? Oh ho! Don't know what to do with a doe? “He winked at Twitch. Twitch charged him.
Ghost's tail swung wildly around her cloak. Several small things fell out. The room filled with smoke.
Twitch was pinned down to the floor by Warlord Cutthroat. Cutthroat took his rusty old dagger from its sheath. "Time to finish the job." Creature 1138 was stabbing Ghost Shadowstab mercilessly when she exploded. Shurikens and nails burst forth from the flaming body of Ghost. Creature 1138 got the brunt of the shrapnel. Seven more explosions sounded from the chamber shortly after the first.
 
After I gave up on the hardboiled Skavenblight idea I wrothe the first part of this chapter, and thought, wouldn't it be great to do all the skaven bits in rhyme? Yes it would, but it would also feel forced after a short while. But it is an idea I may yet go back to. Also big reveal here. Had to be very careful not to spoil it before this point, with only a small hint or two prior to this.
Funny to post this chapter when my icon is a skaven slave though. Talk about timing! Great job to the LO team on this April fool's joke!Screenshot_2016-04-01-23-24-07.png
 
Chapter 13

Greyseer Antler was excited. His screaming bell was being brought around right now. The troops he had ordered were marching down the street like an abominable parade. Where was the verminous hordes of Warlord Cutthroat? He was assured they would be there marching under one banner.
Even without it was an impressive army. He had ordered everything he could. The size of the warpstone that he had seen was enough to pay for this three times over. Let alone what else they might have down in their mines.
" G-g-greys-seer uh uh Antler sir." The rat in ill-fitting armour saluted. He didn't know why. "I uh I have been instructed to give this to your most excellent self. " the rat presented Greyseer Antler with a letter and quickly scurried away.

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Days spent training together, the women of Runefather Corgrim's mercenaries showing the old dwarfs a thing or two about fighting. The Magmadroth were now big enough to ride. And the dwarfs riding them had been training. Jousting with the saurus knights, chasing around the Stegadons, butting heads with the Bastiladons, even sparring with the old blood riding his Carnosaur. They were ready. They had everything they needed. Except the enemy. The king contemplated crossing the river to stomp out the green skins for practice, but decided with his luck, that would be when the rats attacked.

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The skaven also spent time training. Greyseer Antler was extremely excited to try out these new tactics. He would be paid handsomely for a live lizardthing specimen. The great horned one may even bless him with larger horns than his current prosthetics when he got the lizardthing.

The clock struck thirteen.
 
So instead of doing a full training montage set to sporty 80's music I kind of glossed over the new team training together and didn’t really going into the rat training, focusing more on progressing the story rather than dwelling on teamwork. That and the greyseers feelings of inadequacy while measuring his horns.
 
Yeah, it is a kind of training montage, but needed more beach volleyball, crane kicks, one armed push ups and if only I could get the rights to eye of the tiger. Licensing music is more expensive than ever.
 
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Chapter 14

The saurus grew restless. Sending silent signals to one another and drawing their weapons. Skinks started drumming out alarms. The dwarfs looked confused. Lord Orkin himself was a bit confused. He knew they were coming. But the normal clamor and chaos did not precede the advancing hordes. The occasional squeak followed by the crack of a whip. It was uncanny.
The dwarfs started setting up the war machines. Gunpowder greetings were being calculated. Magmadroth joining the seraphon war monsters.

The rats were moving swiftly and silently. Nosqueak gave orders by twitching his tail. He was leading from the front. It was unheard of. Greyseer Antler was waiting in anticipation for Nosqueak to get exploded by the Dwarven artillery. Nothing personal. He just had such a great view from his bell. The warpstone had just been discarded a few hundred meters from the Dwarven hold. He had had a special unit of Stormfiends just for that. They drill up get it into the ground, the neurotoxin in their armour kills them, it's all his. He had wanted them to blow up, but the engineers started laughing. Which probably meant he hadn't thought it through. Also he had those engineers killed. They laughed funny.

King Dargrim shoved his pinky in his ear again. He wasn't deaf, but he couldn't figure out why the skaven were so silent. It was kind of nice, but gave an eerie calm to the battlefield. Well he would just have to make enough noise for everyone. "Fire the cannons and organ guns."
The monsters were moving up to meet the hated rat beasts. The old blood was going monster hunting. His Carnosaur had gotten a taste for Hellpit abominations in his many battles as an exterminator. Runefather Corgrim stood next to his brother. His mount was ready. He had started to say something, the king walked away. Corgrim got into the saddle and rode off to greet the disgusting little vermin. Swiping his giant axe as his beast vomited hot fiery bile at the rats.

Warlord Nosqueak heard something. He dashed into the midst of the Stormvermin. A hail of blow darts rained on them. A few of them falling over dead immediately. Fangleader Snagtooth took a dart to the neck. He immediately started giggling. It gave him a quick little pick me up. He had built up quite the immunity to nearly every poison known. He was a popular fellow. A Packmaster whipped him for giggling so noisily. Nosqueak pointed to some odd shadows by the trees. The Stormvermin rushed at the camouflaged lizards. The Packmaster managed to snare one. He jabbed it with his shock prod. Too much juice. The thing turned to light and disappeared. Nosqueak smacked him in the back of the head. Another one caught one on his things catcher. The skink struggled to break free. Nosqueak took the thingcatcher from the pack master just before the pavk master dropped dead from a rapid succession of darts to the face. Twitch shoved the little chameleon into a sack. The Stormvermin swung wildly at the chameleons. Warlord Nosqueak disappeared into the crowd. Then was gone from the battle.
A young new chieftain wearing the mark of Nosqueak and a charming little collar with a ringerless bell on it came running up to the screaming bell.
"Greyseer Antler, Warlord Nosqueak sends word that his primary objective is complete."

"Excellent where did he bring the creature?" The Greyseer asked.

A magmadroth belched flames at the chieftan.

"He brought it to Cutthroaaaaahhhhhh" Shrieked the chieftain his face melting from the skull.
"I must tend to something in Skavenblight. I will summon a new general to help." Greyseer Antler dismounted his bell and ran a reasonable distance away.
Behind the Magmadroth and Dwarven rider a large horned rat daemon appeared. It swung its doom glaive at the Magmadroth. The magmadroth roared out in pain before vomiting fiery bile and blood on the vermin pushing the bell. The giant lizard had been cut in half. The Runefather jumped off of his dying mount. He started running, he had no idea where to go. That rat daemon would surely be the death of him. He heard the sound of leathery wings beating. Some sort of giant lizard birds were viciously pecking and clawing at the daemon. A different lizard bird landed near him. The little skink rider motioned for him to come join. He mounted the Terradon and they headed back to towards the hold.
 
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Tension builds! Skaven making almost no noise? Unheard of, but would be unnerving to most who are used to fighting them, psychological warfare, whether intentional can be quite effective. Not sure how well I conveyed it, but I thougt it got across. Also seraphon kidnapped oh no!
 
Chapter 15

Skavenblight. The city smelled worse than it looked. Considering it looked like a rotting corpse, that's saying something. Something that's already been said, but this was new to the skink. He was shackled and lead by a short chain that was connected to his throat and hands. The leg shackles forced him to take quick short stride steps. Scout ChanHai was pelted by garbage as he was marched through the streets. A rat with ludicrously oversized horns made some squeaking noises. The rat who had handed him over to this new rat had a large scar across his throat. The new rat yanked the chain hard and lead him into a dark alley. They came to a door and the rat knocked in a certain way.
The door opened and the scout was roughly pulled in to the entrance. The door creaked shut. There were sounds of other creatures somewhere in the structure, howling and wailing in pain. Scout ChanHai would soon join their melancholy chorus.
 
Oh no! A named character got captured! How did that happen? Chameleon Skinks are more fun to write for when they can't hide, you can almost sense the fear of a being with so many defensive capabilities who can't use them to get away. I'm not the first to put that out there, but it's still a good hook.
 
spawning of Bob said:
You getting these out faster than I can comment! These rats have plots that have plots of their own. Who is working for who? Was the whole battle a diversion to cover a skinknapping?

And it just occurred to me, did no one invite @tom ndege to this party?
Click to expand...
I always assume people get comment fatigue, there is a lot of things to comment on in LO. Which is why we have the like button! I like it but I am not going to bring something to the conversation that hasn't already been said! Hopefully @tom ndege has been reading this! But if not there's time to catch up!
 
Chapter 16

The Terradon landed and Runefather Corgrim went straight for the ale. Flying was not for him. Some people took to flying right away some never could get the hang of it.

Lord Orkin flew by furiously. Floating palanquin did not have the same effect as stomping, but everyone present could sense his anger. The vault door opened and he flew in. The vault door slammed shut behind him. Slamming doors trumped stomping anyway.
"Out of my mind."

"You have been ordered to impart your memories to me."

"I am the exterminator. These are my memories. It's my constellation."

“You have been ordered to release control to me. You need a rest. Your work is sloppy. "

"How dare you? What do you know of..."

"ONE of your memories is on a different plane. Did you even notice? "

“I don't..."

"You don't even know which one do you? Let me in. Let me know the constellation so that when you get yourself killed they can still be used."

"Fine. After this battle I will come back to High Azyr and..."

“No. It happens here and now. We will shut this down. You have lost control. You have a memory lost in the realm of the rats. You need to step down."

"After the battle."

"We don't have time to negotiate...."

Both the Slann started to gasp in pain.

ChanHai stopped gasping in pain. He felt very different. He felt slower. He felt duller.
"Think it's infectious?"
"It certainly should be."
He felt afraid.
"Go on cut him a little."
He felt the blade sink into his skin. He felt the rusty blade tear at his flesh.
He felt blood trickling out of this wound.
"Well if it isn't infectious from him maybe we can load it into gun food."

“Ammunition?”

"That's what I said."
The skink writhed on the operating table as the skaven poked and stabbed metal objects into him. His chirps of pain quickly became dreadful screeches, until he made no sound at all.
ChanHai died. His corpse did not turn to light. He did not disappear from the operating table.
ChanHai did however disappear from Lord Orkin's memory. A star did disappear from the sky.
 
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