Karond Kar

The acid had been dissolving the copper disk for a few hours, finally the metal gave way in several places at once. Chemicals which had so far been separated mixed in the middle and had quite some party. The heat they gave off enticed a chunk of white phosphorous to do the same, not that the latter needed much prompting in the presence of oxygen. The complete reaction happened in a tube made from magnesium. The metal needed a tenth of a second to heat up sufficiently and then started to burn with eye-searing intensity.
It did all of that inside a crate which had several markings in DawiZharr script on them, several of them showing how important it was not having fire close to them. Now they showed why this was so when lots of small-arms ammunition made for a lengthy set of explosions and assorted bangs. The fire they started provided some additional illumination of Karond Kar's pier, immolated a couple of DawiZharr guards who had been dead for a few hours already and provided for quite the spectacle

Ralgus saw the flashes of the explosions as they threw stark shadows through the tower's windows. They made for an acceptable distraction, not that a Druchii assassin ever needed one. Still, anybody who had survived the rituals and torture that went for training at Khaine's temple would never forgo any advantage that could be gained. This went doubly so when such an important target was at stake.

Ralgus had entered Karond Kar's fastness through hidden paths known only to the dead and his brethren. It had not been easy, using in part sewers and the space between floors given to heating. He had made his way to the roof of the building next to the fastness' keep. From here would be no secret passage, no way to sneak through the building. The tower had been constructed quite deliberately to make that impossible. Which just meant that he had taken the outside of the tower. Few people thought that was possible at all, given that the tower's wall consisted of black stones smooth and hard as Obsidian and fitted so tightly that it was hard to tell where one stone began and the other ended.

One of the new toys the Assassins had received helped there. He had fitted strange devices to his hands that ended in large suction cups. They had held him safely enough as long as the lever on their back side was depressed. As soon as he released it he could remove it from the surface with very little effort and even less sound. He doubted that anybody had spotted a black shadow flowing up an equally black tower.
He needed all the strength that decades of training had given him to pull himself up the tower, meter by meter. Only an Adapt of Khaine could have twisted and turned his way through the spikes and thorns that adorned the tower's walls without cutting himself to ribbons. He had paused between two of the windows at the edifice's top and had waited for the distraction to start. The sound and fury allowed him to use his dagger on the leaden frames that held the glass pieces in their place without being spotted. It was difficult work, with only one hand to be used and any mistake sure to raise an alarm. It would surely make the DawiZharr general flee and that would not do.

And then there was the moment when he would have to take the plunge. Cutting in three deft, fast strokes he parted the soft metal and pushed. The lead on the remaining side of the square he had cut acted like a hinge, holding the part of the window in place even when it overhung the tower's wall. Ralgus moved inside the tower in a flash.

He had expected a commanding officer's quarters, replete with bodyguards, aides, and servants. He would have crept by them if possible and slaughtered them if not. Yet he stepped into something he had not expected. The room before him encompassed the complete width of the tower without any subdivisions. It was unlit at the moment, but Khaine's disciples had no need of such aid. Still, he had difficulties in understanding what he was seeing. Instead of the tables and maps that he expected he found low-slung beds and pieces of furniture that made no sense in this place. Instead of stocky dwarven aides and bodyguards, he saw the slender bodies of Druchii and humans lying around in various states of undress. Some were breathing, many were not. There were a few DawiZharr from the looks of it and they seemed still alive, but pretty out of it. The more he saw the more his brain acknowledged that this room was not the room of a commanding officer, but had been used for pretty serious fun.

He hoped that said worthy had enjoyed himself as this would be his last such experience. This should be easy, he would kill all Dwarfs and be gone. He looked around for the best angle for the first kills when the hairs on his neck stood up and he felt a chill. He had fine senses, among the best of any mortal being on this world. Still, he saw, heard, felt and smelt nothing out of place and still, something put him on alert. He turned ever so slowly, trying to take in any sensation he had missed so far. And again he found nothing, nothing that would threaten him. He was about to look for DawiZharr to kill when he realized what had alarmed him. Some of the Druchii bodies were no longer in the places they were a few seconds ago. Someone or something had rearranged them without making any sound. Ralgus jumped back, silently and surely as any cat ever born. He landed soundlessly when his mind caught up with what his training and his reflexes had made him do. Somebody was trying to play games with him. He would have to do it the hard way, the bloody way.

That was when the arm, the oh so strong arm materialized around his neck and a hand clamped around the hand that held the dagger, paralyzing his every limb and filling him with a pain that exceeded anything he had ever experienced at Khaine's temple.

"Do you really think you can sneak up on me my friend? My liege is the Prince of Pleasures, she grants the ability to perceive what is really there. You are a bit late for our party, but better late than never. And don't fret, we do not discriminate against your kind here. You will be a nice desert."

Mordred managed to carry the Druchii assassin to the middle of the room that lit up all on its own. What Raglus saw then frightened even him.

Close to Wismar, Germany

The room was normally unremarkable. A bog-standard small conference room in a rented villa near Wismar normally used for corporate retreats. The trappings included a polished three-meter dark wood conference table with not particularly luxurious black leather swivel chairs. The walls had a few mass-produced landscapes from the northern coast and the Empire. Unfortunately, despite the environment, this particular meeting was anything but routine.

There were three men seated around one end of the table facing the 1.4 meter screen on one wall. A fourth stood by the screen with a combination remote mouse/laser pointer. The screen showed a white background with the words Streng Geheim - Nebel (Top Secret Fog).

"Good afternoon. It is good to see you all, although I wish it was under better circumstances.

"Formalities first, this briefing is classified Top Secret – codeword Fog. It is not to be discussed with anyone not on the Fog list."
"Let's get started. By all means, ask questions and if you think I am wrong, please point it out. There are several places where I really hope I am wrong, but hope isn't a plan."

He clicked the remote to bring up the first slide. It showed a map of the large portion of the Warhammer World from Naggaroth in the west to the area east of the World's Edge Mountains, with a blown-up view of that area. The overall area was labeled The Dark Lands and it featured several regions with charming names like the Howling Wastes and the Blasted Wastes.

"Gentlemen, we have a problem. It is not nearly as immediate as the one the Druchii face, but it is a serious problem, in its way as grave as any the Reikbund has faced."
You all know the basics of the DawiZharr. They have lived in the Dark Lands east of the World's Edge Mountains for several thousand years. The land is poor and centuries of magic and magi-tech industry have poisoned it further. They are the rulers of the Plain of Zharr at the North Eastern section of the Dark Lands and have outposts throughout the rest. They have a sizable population, with several hundred thousand DawiZharr and several million slaves. They were facing a long-term decline due to the cumulative effects of the magical and non-magical pollution that is poisoning their lands."

He clicked through a few more slides showing overhead and oblique views of the landscapes, emphasizing their tortured and poisoned nature.

"That was fortunate because unlike the other powers of the Warhammer World, they have a gift for technology, especially magical technology. Their own abilities have been heightened by the group of German renegades working with them, but they are taking the ball and running with it."

"As you can see in the next few slides, they have been very inventive indeed, with magical combat walkers and actual combat aircraft in the form of their flying saucers. More recently, the Druchii have found out the hard way that the DawiZharr have invented steam-powered transport ships and armored warships."

Some of the slides showed combat photos of the walkers and saucers. Others showed the examination of the wreckage. The last few were oblique shots from a distance showing DawiZharr ships of various types in and around the harbor of Karond Karr.

"Until now though, they had not demonstrated any serious power projection capability outside the Dark Lands. The Druchii doubtless devoutly wish it had stayed that way.
Personally, I don't really care what happens to the Druchii, but I think we all need to be concerned to the DawiZharr beat them. The Druchii are a threat, but despite the renegade Germans helping them, they are not advancing all that quickly. Their progress is impeded by Druchii who have lived for hundreds of years and are set in their ways, along with the typical infighting in a society where intrigue is a life or death art form. In particular, for cultural reasons they have not expanded much outside their ancient cities and surrounding areas. As an American remembering how fast my country went from sea to sea, I find this very hard to understand, but am thankful the Druchii have chosen not to grow."

He clicked up the next slide, which showed a map of Naggaroth with the portion occupied by the Dark elves and the vast unoccupied area to the south.

"The DawiZharr are different though. They are innovating and expanding on what their rGermans have taught them. Do we really want them to have access to a nearly North America sized area of unpoisoned land, with massive reserves of industrial metals, fuels, and arable land? We can fight and beat them now and probably for the next 30-50 years. In a century, however, the Reiksbund may be facing a slave society that is a peer competitor. For those of us who lived through Earth's Cold War, I don't recommend it. On Earth, it ended about as well as it possibly could, without any WMD usage. I don't know if things would work out that well here."

Trevayne clicked the remote again and a red ring appeared around the island city in the North East.

"At present, the DawiZharr have invaded and captured the Druchii city of Kar Karond. They can use this as an advanced base and logistical facility to defeat the rest of the Druchii cities. At present, the potential outcomes and their likelihood are as follows:"

He clicked again and a list appeared. The men around the table could read the possible outcomes.

1. Druchii win, do not lose major strategic resources and/or population – highly unlikely, the DawiZharr have a significant technological edge and one that will probably grow.

2. Druchii win, lose large population parts and/or strategic resources – unlikely, but possible, especially if they can successfully interdict the long DawiZharr logistics routes.

3. Druchii-DawiZharr stalemate, with the latter keeping Karond Kar, but are stopped from further inroads into Druchii territory – possible to likely, depending on whether they can match DawiZharr technology through innovation and Druchii sorcery, and if they receive help from the outside.

4. DawiZharr win, manage to integrate survivors – unlikely but possible. I do not know Druuchii psychology well enough to assess how likely they are to surrender in numbers that will be meaningful to integrate.

5. DawiZharr win, but need longer time to settle – most likely outcome, assuming most Druchii fight to the death of themselves and their slaves

"These last two are the most dangerous long-term possibilities for a victory by either, with integration the most dangerous. However, a stalemate presents its own problems and is potentially the most dangerous outcome of all. The problem is we have seen just how innovative they can be with a poisoned land that has been mined for thousands of years. How much more dangerous will they be if they have clean, un-poisoned land with several times the resources in terms of coal, oil, iron, chromium, cobalt, nickel, tungsten, bauxite, etc."

"While some of these will still need a lot of work, the DawiZharr may well surprise us again. For example, we need lots of electricity to process bauxite into aluminum, far more than the DawiZharr have. On the otother handthey have been sorcerors specializing in fire and metal for centuries and may well have some magical workarounds."

"Here is where I assess the consequences of these outcomes"

He clicked and a new slide appeared.

Outcome for Germany/Reiksbund

Short Term – no change for all five

Medium Term - Long term

1. No change

2. Destabilization, others might try to grab territory

3. Increased threat potential from both, as both sides are forced to innovate and expand to avoid giving the opponent an advantage - potentially the most dangerous

4. Potential emergence of peer competitor as DawiZharr use magi-tech to try to counter German and Reiksbund technology

5. Same as four, but delayed due to lack of Druchii personnel resources and requirements to rebuild areas damaged in combat - most likely

"The next step is deciding what to do about this threat. That is your call and the government's. The easy choice is watch and wait. Neither is a serious threat now. However, waiting until the threat is obvious greatly increases the potential cost. If we wait until the DawiZharr have acquired a magical WMD and a delivery system, the cost may be too great and we will be sharing the Warhammer World with a DawiZharr version of the USSR as a peer competitor."

When the contractor had gone the three men looked at each other. It was Werner Reiser who spoke up first.

"You picked the right guy Ottokar, that was a good job."
"Yes Heiner, he has his uses. Still, he'll be more useful as an independent and I am not sure he'd be interested."
"Too bad, he did a thorough job, but I still don't like the message."
"None of us do, I'd say. But did our lords and masters get the same Ottokar?"
"More or less and I will make sure it crops up again in the next Security Council meeting. Alas, I think they will kick the can down the road until it is too late."
"Why?"

"Heiner, you heard the same briefing that we all did. The worst outcome is stalemate. Even if the Spitzohren manage to throw the Chaos Stumpies off their icebox the message would be clear. It would read that anybody can attack the Druchii with no repercussions and that you need to upgrade your tech as fast as possible. Both sides and probably a few more would take this as a call to an arms race. Fuck, they have mages here who can transmute lead into Plutonium, this could get out of hand in a bleeding hurry. Anybody here thinks that will result in Germany living in a safer world? No? I don't think so either and that means that something needs to be done. Somebody needs to show that he cares and he needs to make sure that the surviving parties do not get problematic ideas.

This means we cannot just hand the Spitzohren a few assault rifles, have the Wild Geese sell them a few more machine guns or have a few Panzerfäuste fall of a truck. This means full-scale intervention, followed by a round of nation-building. Can you say Iraq with me? And the Kaiserlichen made very sure to spread the message they would not be the guys standing for such things, otherwise they would be unelectable except by the crazies. If they go back on such a promise so soon they would become a bad taste in a minute. And the SPD would capitalize on the government spending so much money on a war for people who would enslave every German in a cool minute if they'd have the chance. We'll spread the message, but I believe the chance it is acted on is precisely zero."

"Which means we have to act on it somehow."
"Yes Werner, that's what it means. It is what we are here for."
"So we need to find an army to aid the Druchii and is powerful enough to make them say uncle afterward. Wolfgang Böhler's people are good, but they are not that good."
"Not by themselves, no they are not. So we need to invite others to the party."
"Who, the Asur?"
"Not powerful enough and certainly not going to do what we want them to do. No, this is a long shot but…."