The grass bent in a sudden gust, Rek recoiled slightly, quickly recomposing himself. He was not used to the cool breezes of the surface, far more accustomed to the stale air of the underground. He was bemused how ignorant the man-things and mer-things were, the disgustingly pure air drew their scent right to him! The far more clever Skaven hid their scent within the musk of the Under-City in which they resided. He snickered maliciously at how easy this raid would be.
Guided by the pale moonlight, Rek crept ever closer to his target. A sleepy town in the distance, sentries patrolled the town's outskirts, illuminated by the torches they carried. Rek and his pack didn't rely on such conspicuous devices, preferring instead to use their senses alone to navigate through the twilight.
The village itself was hard to properly view from this distance but from what he could tell, the buildings were made mostly from wood and thatch with some of the larger buildings built from Stone. Vast fields surrounded the village from all sides, unharvested crops obscuring the ground from view. A fact that Rek had taken full advantage of.
With a wave of his hand, his Clanrats split off into pairs and moved to envelop the settlement. The shapes of the patrolling guards were now clear, their plan would soon spring into action. Once the band was within earshot of the guards, they moved in time with the wind, concealing the rustling of the grass and the sounds of their footfalls. The relaxed posture of the man-things only served to spur Rek and his cohort on, the thrill of the hunt was too enticing to ignore.
Their target was now in sight, a tall stone building near the center of the town stood above all the others, a mysterious blue light emitted from the windows. The guards wore shoddy armor, more of a town watch than an actual organized defender. He almost stood no chance against Rek's undeniable intellect.
The hapless guard was unaware of the danger that stalked toward him. A gust of wind rattled the fields, and Rek and his band drew ever closer. But the man continued to mill about mindlessly, using the metal end of his spear, he raked the soil by his feet, making his best attempt to write on the soil.
Rek nodded to the Clanrat beside him, who promptly disappeared into the grass. His teeth jittered with excitement, the promotion he would get for this mission would finally give him the recognition he deserves. Slaves, control, even Breeders would he his! His ragged, flea-ridden fur bristled, he saw the signal, and moved to act.
Rek stood tall, revealing himself to the Watchman, the man took several moments to finally notice his presence. Seemingly more concerned with the hole he had now made than actual vigilance against attackers. His head turned upward, his eyes meeting Rek's. The man recoiled in shock, taking multiple steps back and into the blade of the Clanrat behind him.
A blade burst out of the Watchman's chest, instead of a scream, he coughed up copious amounts of blood, his eyes widened and put up a vain struggle. He was promptly thrown to the ground and the two Skaven descended upon him. Rek could barely hold back his squeals as he plunged his knife into the man's chest. Blood soaked the soil around them, the frenzied stabbing of the man not ceasing until Rek was satisfied he would not be getting up again.
Wasting no time, the pair dragged the body into the foliage, and proceeded with their mission. Keeping low to the ground, they approached the town proper. The windows of the houses were dark but nonetheless they aired on the side of caution. They made barely a sound as they skulked through the shadows. Even now, the stench of the man-things and mer-things assailed his nose, the filth and grime of the village did little to impede his ability to snuff out his target.
They crept their way to the side of a house, Rek looked upwards and judged the height of the building. He gestured to the top of the house, the two Skaven wrapped their tail around their weapons and scurried up the side of the building onto the rooftop. From there he gained a birds eye view of the settlement. Across various buildings on the outside of the Village he could see the other Skaven groups had successfully dealt with their guards.
Dozens of Skaven sat atop various roofs, surveying the area just as Rek was. The village was a loose collection of shelters surrounding a more compact downtown which housed, Rek assumed, the village's most important treasures. The tallest building was Rek's target, the blue glow of it's windows faintly illuminated the streets around the building.
The few remaining Watchmen patrolling the streets were easily avoided on their approach to their goal, a dozen of Rek's underlings had gathered at the building's base. With a motion of his hand, the Skaven filed into the building through the open windows on the second level, Rek however scurried to the top.
Careful not to make any noise he scaled the wall effortlessly, his experience in the Under-Cities had more than prepared him for such a climb. He was careful to look around every few meters he climbed, keeping tabs on the remaining sentries. On the top level, where the glow was at its brightest, Rek spotted a scraggly robed figure. The man's back was turned to Rek, far more interested in whatever he was working on.
The only thing separating him from his quarry was a simple window, as it was so high up, it lacked any way of locking shut. Again, the foolishness of these man-things amused Rek greatly, almost causing him to snicker. Sliding his hand between the window and the sill, he managed to raise it open just enough for entry. Readying his dagger once again, he prepared to dispatch the decrepit man.
Suddenly, the robed man perked up, looking towards the door. His Clanrats had clearly been careless and alerted the man-thing to their presence. His hands lit up and to Rek's amazement, fire seemed to materialize from his palm. He was not told he would be fighting sorcerers! Fear shot into his heart almost instantly, he remained where he was, instead choosing root through a pouch on his side.
He retrieved a small chunk of warpstone, it's glowing green energy twisted in the palm of his hand. Wasting no time, he chucked the stone some distance inside, startling the old man inside. Rek quickly ducked down, concealing himself until the right moment. A brief moment of silence followed by careful footsteps from within.
Each footfall grew louder, Rek readied his poisoned dagger and listened intently. The sound of the old man's irregular breathing grew louder as his footsteps approached the window. The man's scent reeked of fear, the shuffling of his robes and a momentary scraping of the floor alerted Rek that his plan could now be put into action.
In a flash of violence, Rek hurled himself up and plunged his dagger into the old man's throat. The fire dissipated from his palm and dropped the glowing green warpstone. He gurgled for some time, blood dripping down his neck, staining the ostentatious grey robes he wore. He instinctively grabbed onto the Skaven's arm in a vain attempt at defence.
With an unceremonious tug, the man was pulled over the window sill and plummeted to the dirt road with a pronounced thud. Rek snickered, the weak old man had hardly been a challenge for one of his stature. It was almost embarrassing how afraid of the Sorcerer Rek had been. He pulled himself over the threshold and into the now vacant room. In an almost synchronized fashion, his underlings had burst through the door at the other side of the room.
"Quick-quick! Fetch-take all you can!" Rek hissed.
The Pack got to work ransacking the room, bookshelves were toppled and artifacts of all shapes and sizes were stuffed into pouches. Rek approached the table the old man had previously been fixated on, noticing strange crystalline gems which glowed with energy. Rek immediately squealed with excitement, while it did not glow green, what else could these be other than warpstone!
He wasted no time gathering as much of the crystals as he possibly could, he would be handsomely rewarded for his efforts tonight, he knew that much. Rek had not only slain a sorcerer, but had found the Warpstone that Clan Gnawmak had been searching for since they arrived here.
He barked at his underlings, and climbed back out the window. Looking down, the broken body of the old man lay strewn across the street in a pool of his own blood. It took him no time at all to disappear back down the side of the building, shortly followed by the rest of his pack.
They slinked through the town once more, leaving the building they had emerged from safely in the distance. Weaving their way through empty alleyways and sleeping households they arrived at the grassy field they had emerged from. Their timing could not have been any better as a shout rang out from within the town. The old man's body must have been discovered.
Alarm bells rang out and the town slowly came back to life. Lights now illuminated previously black windows and watchmen emerged from many of the houses. The pack of skaven dove into the grass and made their escape, content with their handiwork the pack laughed and jested their way back to the tunnel they had come from.
Rek's expression suddenly dropped, as his hand moved towards his sheath, his dagger was still in the man-thing! His heart dropped and anxiety filled his very being. To leave a poisoned dagger to be discovered by the town would certainly earn him a swift beheading at best. He prayed with all his might that his blunder would go unnoticed.
The town was in a state of chaos, bodies dotted the outskirts of the town with each seeming more brutalized than the one before. Worst of all of them was the old mage Velvich whose body lay broken and contorted in the mud, a crudely crafted dagger stuck out of his throat. Deren knelt over the body, his hand hovering over the hilt of the dagger.
"By the Eight, who could have done such a thing?" his voice trembled.
Deren had lived in the town of Arvon all his life. Apart from the odd creature that wandered too close, nothing as monstrous as this had ever occurred. His hands slowly wrapped around the hilt of the blade, with a brief moment of hesitation he pulled the blade free. The crude weapon had large serrations which lined the bottom half of the blade. A faint green glow accented the edge, he hadn't seen anything quite like it.
He was pulled away from his thoughts by the glow of torchlight from behind him. Another watchman peered over Deren's shoulder, a look of shock and disgust stained his face.
"By the- is that old man Velvich?"
Deren could only nod in reply. The watchman sighed.
"Here, help me look for footprints, maybe we can still track this coward down."
The two got to work searching the mud for any sign of the intruder. Apart from their own, there were curious prints on the ground, almost animalistic. There were many sets of prints which stretched out in many directions leading to and from the east end of town.
The footprints disappeared into the long grass at the edge of town. The men scratched their heads.
"Goblins?" the other watchman asked.
"I don't think I've ever seen a Goblin do this."