Previously on The Dwarven Effect:

Watching the fleeing skaven with amusement, Storri grabbed Alexis as she moved past him, shaking his head. "No Alexis, let this one go. He will lead us to the other skaven he spoke of. Then when we have killed them, he will show us where the rest of the ratmen hide." Alexis looked like she wanted to protest for a moment but then she nodded, instead going to retrieve her daggers from two of the skaven corpse. Storri noticed Graven shift slightly away from her as she passed, but it was to be expected from such a young dwarf seeing such a feat for the first time.

Bori whistled appreciatively as the dwarves began to follow the skaven's trail at a fast jog. "You certainly keep some bloodthirsty company these days Thane, I doubted it when you said she could deal with the rats by herself, I am not sure whether I am glad I was wrong." Alexis' haunting chuckle sent a shiver up even Storri's spine as she loped past them, bow and burning arrow in hand. "Don't worry master dwarf, I am only dangerous when I am hungry. You won't let me get hungry will you?"

Bori's face paled even more as she licked her elongated canines slowly before she rushed past them entirely and disappeared from even Storri's sight, leaving the four dwarves even more alert to the night than before. Less than a minute later the arrow was in the sky and the sounds of squealing skaven filled their ears.

Storri raised his halberd as the other dwarves did the same with their own weapons, Bori muttering about crazy human women under his breath. Storri chuckled as they reached the first skaven for the night and he skewered it with his halberd. "Come Bori, you don't want to be outdone by a manling do you?" The red dwarf growled as his hammer sent a skaven squealing into the night, a trail of skaven corpses proving quite how far behind Alexis he was, this was going to be a long night…

Chapter 10: Let the Battle commence!

"Keep it quiet, we aren't deep enough yet and the last thing we want is a horde of these rats on our heads!" The three miners with him grunted quietly once more as they shifted the last barrel of pitch to the top of the tunnel. The skaven they had let escape last night had done exactly what he had intended for it, leading them right to the skaven tunnels. It had been three days since the find and he and the other dwarves had scoured the nearby hills, trying to find where the tunnels lead without going underground into what could be thousands of skaven.

It had been Fili that had found the main tunnel entrance, guarded by dozens of skaven day and night, but it showed them exactly which hill it was their enemy was hiding in. The Bretonnian soldiers would be slaughtered if they tried to take the fight to the skaven underground, so the skaven needed to be forced above the ground. It was Alexis who came up with the plan they were using, to smoke the rats out using the gunpowder and pitch the army had brought with them, so here Storri was, 300 metres below the ground with enough firepower to kill him 10 times over.

"Get yourselves out of here, you've got three minutes whilst I prepare the fuse." The miners nodded and began heading back up as fast as they could considering they had to stoop to walk. Grabbing the small barrel of pitch in his hands, Storri cracked open the top of the barrel with one of his hatchets. Then he began stepping backwards, as it poured onto the ground in lumpy clumps.

Storri had made it almost three hundred yards with the pouring before the sounds of scampering movement from one of the passages to his left told him time was up. Drawing his flints he let a little bit of a grin cross his face as the skaven began to swarm into the tunnel in front of him as the sparks caught the pitch and set it alight. The screams of the skaven were sweet music to his ears even as he ran as fast as he could back to the entrance, any minute now… The explosion sounded muffled at first, then the roar of the flames came closer and closer by the second, this was going to be close…

Persona: Baron Rainard of Loreux.

"Well your plan to bring the foe above ground certainly seems to have work Herr Storri." Rainards words, spoken as a mutter to himself, had an edge to them that belayed his horror as he took in the sight before him. At the bottom of the hill that the almost 1000 strong Bretonnian force had situated itself upon was a veritable swarm of skaven. They were pouring from tunnel entrances or in some cases tearing themselves from the very ground itself.

This massed exodus was to avoid the cascading tunnel failure that Storri had instigated less than ten minutes before. And judging from the panic the skaven were showing he certainly had known what he was talking about. The dwarf in question made his way to the mounted knight's side as if sensing Rainard's words. Storri looked like he had had as much trouble in the tunnels as Rainard imagined his men would in the battle above ground, several minor wounds oozing red blood down his mud encrusted and slightly scorched countenance.

"I warned you there would be a lot of the vermin my lord. I advise we use our bows to pelt them now, before they have a chance to organise. Do we have word of our allies?" Reinhardt shook his head, though it was tactically sound he knew what had to be done before all else. Dismounting with a surprisingly elegant jump considering his weight, his feet dug in slightly to the soft earth, his fellow knights following his example as he knelt, one knee into the earth as he drew his sword with a flourish and rested his head against the hilt of it.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Storri shake his head and mutter mutinously for a moment before weaving his way down past the kneeling peasants. Muttering for guidance and protection from the lady on this day, Reinhardt had to admit a slight annoyance when he heard the dwarf come charging back up the hill a moment later. "Stand archers and make ready! Your lady won't protect you from this!" Opening his eyes and looking up, Reinhardt looked down the hill and instantly saw what the dwarf was talking about. Making their way towards the Bretonnian lines were several pairs of the skaven, carrying weird bulky contraptions in pairs that he did not recognise.

He was about to call out to the dwarf to ask what they were, but one of them unleashed a wave of green fire to clear the panicking skaven in front of them. The flames easily flayed the fur and skin from their bodies with terrifying ease and leaving more than a score of ratmen skeletons on the scorched ground, and Reinhardt realised exactly why the dwarf was panicking. Leaving the other knights in prayer as he forced himself to his feet once more, drawing his sword as he moved to the first line of bowmen. "Aye, when the enemy bring such villainy to the field we must ask the ladies forgiveness as we strike them down before they can unleash their hellfire upon us. Archers make ready and fire on my command!"

Another belch of fire from the advancing skaven teams came closer to his lines of men at arms as the archers hurriedly readied themselves and Reinhardt worried they may be too late. Then one of the machines suddenly started spurting fire in the wrong direction onto the advancing skaven, Rainard's eyes catching the elf of Storri's party reaching for another arrow as the leaking machine exploded in a cascade of fire.

It engulfed the pair of skaven carrying it as a small cheer rose from his lines. Seeing the majority of his archers ready and the skaven massing around their machines for another assault, Reinhardt dropped his arm and let his voice roar across the battle line. "Loose arrows men, for the lady, for Bretonnia!"

A torrent of arrows shot out onto the charging skaven. The skaven in the centre seemed better organised and equipped, raising shields above their head to protect themselves from the rain of arrows. The skaven on the flanks were not so lucky and fell in droves as iron tipped arrows pierced flesh and bone. Those that were not immediately killed were crushed under the mass of their fellows charging on without remorse.

Two more explosions engulfed sections of the skaven advance in sickly fire, disrupting their attempts at formations and causing panic amongst their troops. The archers continued to fire down at their own pace now, though obviously some of the enemy commanders were now taking command of their forces, groups of skaven with shields surrounding their flame throwers to protect them from fire.

Though dozens of skaven were falling with each volley there seemed to be twice as many taking their place as they continued to move towards the Bretonnian forces. Another explosion scattered the central prong of their charge and Reinhardt could see Ionor looking slightly smug as she unleashed more arrows into the now disarrayed skaven.

The remaining machines began to move backwards rather than towards the Bretonnian forces, the more lightly armoured skaven he had seen previously on the flanks being driven forwards by larger skaven armed with vicious looking whips. The mass of smaller skaven reached the Bretonnian men at arm lines, crashing into the shield wall with a high pitched war cry. The line shook and was forced back a step, but then with a resounding shout the men pushed with their shields and slammed the skaven back a step.

It was something that the men at arms practiced regularly, they were not meant to kill all the enemies themselves, merely keep formation for his knights to fall upon the flanks and break them. In this case he could not commit his knights so quickly, with the main enemy force still retreating to reform their lines they could be surrounded.

That was not to mean that there was no work to be done as he eyed Jacques leading half a dozen dismounted knights into combat on their left flank behind what could only be described as the massacre that Storri, the dwarves and his warrior woman were reaping on the skaven that were attempting to flank his men...

Persona: Storri

Slicing through two of the skaven slaves that had made a desperate joint attack against him, Storri was glad that they had forced the skaven to fight above ground rather than try and deal with all their forces in their tunnels. The humans would have been massacred underground with their lack of dark vision and the sheer numbers of the skaven. He hadn't thought there would be this many of the rats though.

Storri, Bori, Alexis and the other dwarves were slaughtering the skaven with ease as they tried to envelop the lines of men at arms. Storri could see Jacques bringing up some knights to support the position they had been maintaining on the far corner of the hill. The knights charged as a group and the remaining skaven in the area began to flee from the battle, away from the now reformed skaven lines but considering their slave status it was as likely that their 'comrades' would cut them down as he was.

He was proved right as the Warpfire erupted from the main skaven lines, incinerating the slaves who tried to flee that way. Storri waved at Jacques to get his attention. "Stop the archers from firing, we will need the arrows soon enough for the actual enemy." Jacques looked at him, then the fleeing skaven before nodding and shouting to a trumpeter that had followed his group of knights who quickly sounded a general stand to that was echoed up the battle line. The skaven slaves seemed to realise that they were no longer going to be shot at from the Bretonnian lines, many of them fleeing to the sides of the Bretonnian formation and off into the rough lands and crags that dominated this area of Bretonnia. Several hundred of the slaves reformed into a vague combat formation however in the middle of the two armies before moving towards Storri.

"Those rat bastards still want a fight do they? Well let's give them a good old fashioned dwarfish slaughter!" Bori raised his twin hammers in anticipation but Storri shook his head, the skaven were not aiming their march at them, but rather to the left of their little group. "They are not aiming to fight us Bori, the ratmen here know that if we lose this battle they will be hunted down and slaughtered by their masters anyways. Either they are hoping to keep together as they flee in order to maintain strength in numbers or…" As if on cue a ragged skaven burst from the group approaching them, waving a rag on a stick that Storri assumed was meant to be white in colour.

"Shall I kill him Storri?" Ionor had an arrow directed right at the approaching skaven, her dislike for the ratmen clear in her tone, something that was mirrored in the dwarves around him. The burning hatred welled up inside Storri as well, but he had to think larger than just this group of skaven. Looking over to where the main skaven army was re-ordering itself for another attack, Storri knew he would have to make the hard choice here. "No, go and get a messenger to Lord Rainard. As much as I despise all ratmen, we will need the extra bodies against that..." He pointed at the new wave of skaven that began to pour forth at that moment. "I will get the ratmen slaves formed up on our flank, that way when they break and run like the cowards they are it will be no great loss…"

He could see the other dwarves looking at him like he had just announced that he would shave his beard and go marry an elf, but after a few moments Bori nodded his head in agreement. "You are right Thane, but I want an oath from their leader and if any of them even accidentally points a weapon this way, they all die." There was a round of "Aye!" from the other dwarves even as Ionor lowered her bow. "I hope you know what you are doing Herr Storri…" As he began striding towards skaven banner wielder, who had stopped some forty paces from them in an obviously terrified manner, Storri couldn't help but wonder if he was as well…