Intro
Craig Gallant is one of the co-hosts of the gaming podcast The D6 Generation
. He loves GW games and has been an avid fan since 1990. This campaign was conducted using a modified version of the Mighty Empires campaign engine.
The Harrowing of Grimfast Vale
Far to the north of the Empire, beyond the province of Ostland, lies a valley nestled in the arms of the southern edges of the Middle Mountains. In the year 1988, in the Age of Three Emperors, explorers of the Empire pushing out from Middenheim discovered this serene and protected vale. Up the middle of the valley was a small range of mountains known to the local dwarf clan as the Grim Spires.
There were vast stretches of fertile land and verdant forests unclaimed by the dwarf thanes, and the Empire was quick to move in and establish a thriving colony. For centuries this small land thrived. There was only sporadic contact with the Empire, and the people of the valley, which they now called Grimfast Vale after the dwarven stronghold in the Grim Spires, thought less and less of their distant lords and masters.
In 2302 the Empire was shaken by the great War Against Chaos, and the entire northern realm was rent asunder. Demands for men and material were made of the Vale, as the Empire once again remembered its vast and far-flung territories. Most of those who marched off to fight with Magnus the Pius never returned, and when the battle was won, before the gates of Kislev far to the east in 2304, the Grimfast Vale was once again forgotten in the wider Realms of Men.
In the year 2420, answering the call of the Thane of Thanes in the south, almost every dwarf in the Vale abandoned their extensive stronghold of Karak Grimfast to return to their ancestral homelands to defend them from the massive warhost of Graum the Paunch. Again, distant conflict stripped the Vale of a great part of its inhabitants. And again, few returned. After 2420 the only dwarfs still living in the vale were scattered and sparse clans making their living in the foothills and smaller mountains in the western portion of the Vale.
In 2468 a group of human farmers from Tranquility Valley attempted to clear a swath of farmland on the edges of the Green Deep, despite the forest’s frightening reputation. Of the 50 men who left on this expedition only one returned, his mind forever broken by what he had seen within the shadows. He screamed of ancient buildings, trees coming to life, and shadows that killed with a gesture and laughed at human pain.
No further attempts to tame the vast forest were ever made.
For forty years all was calm and quiet in Grimfast Vale. The humans and dwarfs lived together in peace, and no one gave any thought to Empires or Kingdoms that had paid no attention to them in almost a hundred years or more.
In the very early spring of 2508, however, all of that would change forever.
Warrior Priest Holgar of Middenheim
Holgar came to the Vale via the Postern Plains to the south to reclaim the Grimfast Vale for the Empire. More important to Holgar, however, was that the Vale be reclaimed in the name of his god, Ulric, before Sigmarite forces from deeper in the Empire could claim the fertile resource for the benefit of their own sect.
Holgar brought a large force north with him from Middenheim, including many Knights of the White Wolf, who would assist the warrior priest in the re-conquest. Although ostensibly entering the Vale to bring the Empire’s peace and protection to the human settlers there, Holgar’s means and methods did not endear himself to the very people he claimed to be protecting.
Baalar Stoneheart and Kurrick Steelheart of Karak Grimfast
These grizzled veterans of the southern Greenskin Wars returned to their ancestral homeland a generation after their family left with the sole purpose of reclaiming Karak Grimfast for their clan.
Battered by war and leery of all non-Dwarven-kind, these two brothers arrived in the Vale through hidden valleys that emptied near the decrepit remains of Grudgholm in the west. They were not quick to take up offered alliances with the inhabitants of the Vale, human or Dwarf, and did not trust the words of the emissaries sent to them from the Empire warrior priest. Their claim was clear to them, and any that barred them from their goal would suffer.
Lord Caranthir, Guardian of the Cairns
None in the Vale knew the true nature of the mysterious Green Deeps, but in Elven lands this forest was known by the name of Ethel Duath. The Ethel Duath was created in Elder Days to protect and hide an ancient Elven center of magical research and learning, and even in the year 2508, thousands of years after it was abandoned, a small exclave of Wood Elves made their home deep in the forest to protect the ruins of the ancient towers.
Lord Caranthir was sent by the Ancient House of Surion to reclaim Ethel Duath, secure any lost relics, and punish any of the younger races foolish enough to have tread upon that sacred ground.
Dreadlord Verullian of Hag Graef
None know exactly how the Dark Elf hosts of Hag Graef entered the Vale. They appeared in the far northern edges, in the small forest just north of the Barrow Lands, early in that spring of 2508. Their purpose was not immediately apparent, but their presence did not bode well for the native inhabitants nor for the newcomers freshly rediscovering this rich valley.
Dreadlord Verullian’s forces, known as the Talon of Spite, were indiscriminant in their initial conquests, and were quick to take prisoners of any unlucky enough to be found in their path.
May of 2508
The forces of Father Holgar established their foothold in the Vale in the small town of Jarlsholm. The inhabitants of the town, given little choice, hailed the coming of the forces of Middenheim with some small enthusiasm. Whether their excitement was feigned or genuine made little difference to the warrior priest.
Scouts were immediately sent north and west to assess the situation, make contacts with the local community leaders, and apprise them of what a happy day it was: that the Empire had once again come to hug them to its powerful bosom.
To the north, Vilton Township in the Burrowood was razed over night with some fell magic, and in its place rose a dark and foreboding tower of glistening stone. A sense of foreboding descended upon the forest, and the local animal life began to disappear in drastic numbers as if they were being fed upon by some new and dangerous predator.
Fell riders clad all in black began to sweep south and west, claiming the land for their lord Verullian. In each village that did not immediately bow down, the village elders were staked to the ground near their village’s well and left to die. In one such village the townsfolk attempted to free their elders, and the dark riders returned within the hour, killing every man, woman, and child, herding the livestock north with them when they left, and burning the village to the ground.
The dwarven clans of Grudgeholm in the west celebrated the return of their long-absent thanes, only to find that the twin brothers now claiming the title of were distant and somber creatures, not overly interested in the cares and concerns of those they had left behind. Their desire to reclaim their ancestral home deep in the Grim Spires was all that they spoke of, and any action not directly aimed at that ultimate goal was of no interest to them.
The twins immediately sent scouts towards the mountains to the east. These dwarven rangers, many of whom had grown up in the Vale in happier times, used their superior knowledge of the land and its secrets to move swiftly and secretly all over the Vale, collecting the information Baalar and Kuerrick would need to retake their birthright.
Far to the east, the most fertile territory of the Vale, Tranquility Valley, were haunted with reports of ghosts and spirits come back to torment the living. No one could give any proof of these hauntings, and although disappearances amongst the outlying towns rose, there was no reason to believe that the danger was supernatural in origin. The winter of 2507-08 had been a hard one, and wolves had been known to come down out of the mountains in search of food and shelter. These creatures had attacked and killed grown men if hungry, or sick, or desperate enough.
What the inhabitants of Tranquility Valley could not have known was that every glade and copse of trees was now home to small bands of infiltrating Wood Elves, all answering to Lord Caranthir and the Ancient House of Surion. The forests, feeling the return of their long-lost lords, stirred in their own dark shadows, and reality, as these innocent farmers and burghers had always known it, was about to take a turn for the worse.
Late in the month a spearhead led by father Holgar himself met a scouting party from Lord Verullian’s Talon of Spite near the Lostern Bridge across the River Arno. It was clear in this first meeting that Holgar’s hatred for all things inhuman would carry his forces far, as the evenly matched armies ground against each other all afternoon. By the time the sun was setting that evening the battleground was strewn with countless dead, while the air overhead was full of carrion birds in numbers never seen in the Vale in living memory. They had followed the warrior priest all the way across the Middle Mountains.
In a final display of martial prowess, a small detachment of crossbowmen, their parent unit having charged deeper into the fray, was caught off guard by Lord Verullian and his honor guard of Cold One Knights. However, keeping their cool, these valiant human warriors showered the incoming heavy cavalry with bolts, killing the entire cadre except for the Lord himself! Although these men were subsequently killed, their tale is still told, all these years later, as an example of bravery and steadfast courage in the face of certain death.
With the destruction of his honor guard Lord Verullian pulled back to the north, where his forces had torn down another small town and replaced it with another of their unnatural fortresses, a mere day’s march from the Arno River itself.
Father Holgar’s forces, energized by their victory over the dark elves, pushed further into the Vale, establishing control all the way to the site of their victory.
With the end of the month almost upon them, the terrified and confused inhabitants of Tranquility Valley were host to the first open revelation of the Wood Elf presence. The warhost of Karak Grimfast, led by the twin thanes themselves, had marched by secret and hidden paths across the Vale in an attempt to scout out the approaches to their ancestral halls. Upon this mission they were met by the forces of the Lord Caranthir and the awakened spirits of the forest.
The dwarves, completely unprepared for such foes, were hard-pressed. A valiant re-deployment of their entire battle line forced upon them when a massive old tree suddenly came to life opened their flank to a charge by Wood Elf elite infantry. Although the dwarves destroyed an entire unit of dryads and forced the sentient tree to flee the battlefield, their losses were too great, and they were, in turn, forced to pull back to Grudgeholm. There, they settled their warriors in the old, cramped quarters of the hill clans, claiming them as their own.
The Wood Elves, capitalizing on the confusion of the local inhabitants, pushed into Tranquility Valley, towards the Turawash River and the Green Deep to the north.
June of 2508
Father Holgar, flush from his recent victory, pushed farther north, coming into conflict with a raiding party of Wood Elves coming down from Tranquility Valley. Their appearance surprised the warrior priest, but he deployed his forces, including several units freshly sent north from Nuln, to face this new foe.
The forces of this Wood Elf war party were new to the area, and not served by the local tree spirits yet. However, it was an elite force, and their forward deployment against the warrior priest caught him completely off guard. Once again his strategy was simple: Kill them all, let Ulric sort them out. Unfortunately, not even the valiant marksmanship of the Imperial Army could save the day, and the strength of Middenheim was broken upon the shifting sands of the illusive Wood Elves.
Pinning the Imperial forces in place in the Vale, Lord Caranthir’s forces continued to push into the Green Deep. The shadowy forces of the Wood Elves struck all the way to the ancient, crumbling tower of the Elven commune hidden for thousands of years in the deepest forest. Only time would tell what ancient relics of power would now be visited upon the people of the Vale.
But Holgar was not entirely defeated. While the bulk of his force was facing the Wood Elves a small contingent of Middenheim men pushed further north, around the battle, and secured a small, seemingly unimportant field in the center of the Vale.
No one has ever discovered what Holgar found in that field. However, it seems clear that Holgar knew, from his first appearance in the Vale, to come here. His army, devoid of any but the warrior priest’s own holy prayers until this point in the conflict, suddenly fielded potent magics of a mysterious and dark origin.
Bolstered by this power, Holgar turned his force east, towards the Grim Spires, Tranquility Valley, and the Wood Elves that had served him his first defeat.
It was in June, also, that the depths of the cruelty of the Dark Elves was first made manifest to the Dwarves of Karak Grimfast. In various skirmishes across the Vale both forces had collected several prisoners. In good faith, the twin thanes sent messengers to the Dark Elves requesting, as per long standing tradition, an exchange of prisoners. Without hesitation, Lord Verullian agreed.
The time was agreed upon, and a meeting place, deep in the Barrow Lands, was set. Lord Verullian did not attend the negotiation in person, but rather sent Beastmaster T’roole in his stead. T’roole, fighting from the back of his massive pet Manticore Hope Breaker, had already made a name for himself as a ruthless and hellbound creature, easily one of the worst to accompany Lord Verullian into the Vale.
From the outset the twin thanes knew that they had not been roundly dealt with, and deployed their forces in a deep glen in the Barrow Lands behind a massive Royal Barrow. The Barrow mists were some defense against the sudden onslaught of the Dark Elf archery, but the sheer volume of fire and the speed of the vicious attack soon had the dwarves off balance. When a massive Hydra, the personal pet of Lord Verullian, came barging out of the mist, flaming breath skirling up into the sky, many of the dwarfs fled immediately. Others stood and died to the last, including a valiant unit of Quarrellers who faced down T’roole himself until a flanking unit of Dark Riders came sweeping past the freed Dark Elf prisoners and struck the dwarfs by surprise.
While T’roole crushed the dwarven forces Lord Verullian pushed out from the Barrow Lands into the northern Vale, taking the delta of the River Arno, pushing down towards Father Holgar’s ancient site of power. His slave masters built a massive mine directly onto the Arno, with hundreds of slaves pulling gold and silver by the bushelfull onto the banks.
The thanes, meanwhile, retreated back to Grudgeholm, where their engineers fortified the ancient hall, built up its walls and towers, and the reuluctant call went out to all the local dwarven clans: come to fight with the thanes and win back your birthright.
Stung twice now, the thanes were furious, and they were thirsting for elfling blood.
July of 2508
An emissary from Lord Verullian appeared at the gates of Grudgeholm early in May, and against their better instincts the twin thanes received him. This tall and distinguished looking druchii bowed low to the thanes, apologized for what he called a gross misunderstanding and a tragic mistake, and with great sorrow presented Baalar and Kuerrick with the bodies of the prisoners who had been accidentally killed during the battle.
The dark elf emissary then offered, as partial compensation, information concerning a Wood Elf expedition that was even then moving towards Karak Grimfast from Tranquility Valley.
The twin thanes’ anger was so great they stormed from the meeting and began to prepare for battle, vowing no elf of any stripe would set foot within the hallowed halls of their homeland.
The forces of Lord Caranthir, having secured the ancient elven ruins, moved west, towards the Grim Spires. They were intercepted by Baalar and Kuerrick, leading a massive force of dwarf infantry and the forces deployed around an ancient dwarven guard tower.
The dwarves, behind the low hill that held the tower, rose up with a roar of challenge and ran to meet their ancient foe. Many of them quailed when another massive sentient tree came bounding from around the tower, but the thanes held their people steady, and the large formations of stalwart warriors continued to advance.
Huge birds of prey, ridden by dexterous archers, came swooping over a small copse of trees to the east. Leaving his attending unit to continue the advance on the tower, Baalar charged out to meet this new threat.
The warhawk riders, sensing an easy kill, stooped down upon the thane even as a a large unit of dryads came storming around the hill. For a moment all appeared lost for the dwarven lord as he was beset on all sides. But with a prodigious throw of his warhammer he crushed the skull of one of the warhawk riders, sending them off in astonishment, and he then turned to the dryads and began to pulverize their wooden flesh with forehand and backhand swings of the recovered hammer.
Meanwhile a force of wardancers came shrieking down the hill and in one moment of devilish combat killed every last dwarf in Baalar’s honor guard. However, they were in turn cut down by Kuerrick and his own followers.
Upon the hill a force of dwarven long axers rushed the tower in an attempt to secure it, only to meet the ancient treeman coming from the other side. The creature did not even deign to meet them in honest combat, rather attacking with his monstrous, writhing roots. This attack, unforeseen and unstoppable, decimated the dwarfs and rocked them back on their heels as Caranthir and his escorting glade guard rained clothyard shafts down upon the beleaguered dwarfs.
In the end Kuerrick’s dwarfs, having destroyed the wardancers, rushed to Baalar’s defense, destroying the dryads in turn. The final unit of dwarven warriors established a perimeter around the tower under the constant fire of Caranthir, his glade guard, and the treeman. However, when the guardian of the cairns saw that the rest of his army had been destroyed or fled, he gave a series of quick hand signals, a grudging nod across the body-strewn battlefield to the brother thanes, and the wood elves faded back into the mists.
The Wood elves returned to the Green Deep, where their wizards began to construct a massive shrine on the banks of the river Tir, pulling mystical energies from the swirling white water emerging from the Grim Spire mountains.
However, unable to force a crossing of the river Arno yet, Baalar and Kuerrick pulled back to their growing city in the west, satisfied with having forced the wood elves back into the forests. Heartened but still angry at their homecoming, the dwarfs continued to excavate and fortify the mountainous terrain around Grudgeholm.
During these excavations, a seem of gold was found beneath the stronghold. The dwarfs, emboldened by this further stroke of good luck, sank several mining shafts and began to process their new wealth.
Lord Verullian, having allowed Father Holgar to consolidate his hold on the sacred sight south of the river Arno, struck with a force containing far more magical power than had previously been seen in the Valley. Both forces struggled to maintain control of several key magical focus points on the battlefield that were somehow tied in to area’s mystical power.
The magical force made itself known early in the battle as Father Holgar revealed a battle wizard in his ranks for the first time. This fire mage, combined with the firepower of the college of Nuln and its Outriders and mortar team, completely decimated Verullian’s right flank, severely wounding one of his precious, newly-arrived sorceress allies and sending a flock of harpies fleeing the battlefield without taking a single casualty.
However, a unit of shades, infiltrating before the battle, had carried with them another new ally of the druchii highborn. This avatar of Khaine flew out of the unit with the assistance of a magical cloak and engaged the Empire Fire Wizard in lethal hand to hand combat. The wizard miraculously held his own for several minutes before succumbing to the supernatural speed and skill of the anointed killer.
This dark assassin then single-handedly dealt with the Empire flank, killing or driving off the outriders, mortar crew, and a unit of crossbowmen before falling back to secure one of the key power foci.
Verullian’s left flank, however, did not meet with such resounding success. A small unit of dark elf spearmen guarding the other of the lord’s sorceress allies held the flank as a unit of dark riders and cold one knights maneuvered to counter the threat of Holgar’s White Wolf bodyguard and a mass of Empire infantry featuring handgunners, swordsmen, spearmen, crossbowmen, and free company mercenaries.
In the end, the White Wolves rode down the spearmen, but were then in turn taken by the cold one knights as Father Holgar fled the confrontation in an attempt to maintain control of the center of the field, even as the dark riders swept away around the flank and rolled up the remaining missile troops, taking the spearmen in the rear.
The Battle of the Sacred Glen was one of the bloodiest seen in the Vale since the beginning of hostilities, but in the end Father Holgar was forced to fall back, ceding victory, and the magical ruins, to Lord Verullian’s forces.
Father Holgar was not pushed far, however, falling back only to the Lostern Bridge, sight of his first victory over the dark elves, and his men began to fortify the bridge against further possible assault.
Meanwhile, emissaries from the warrior priest were sent to Grudgeholm in an attempt to forge an alliance to attack the dark elves now situated directly between the dwarf and empire forces.
It would appear that Lord Verullian could well have overextended himself in seizing the sacred glen from the Empire.
August of 2508
The battle of El’Ranic Manor has been studied in the Imperial War College for decades now. Easily the largest battle the Grimfast Vale has ever seen, the ancient ruined manor house was witness to one of the strangest conflicts ever recorded in the world.
In his continued effort to reassert control over the sacred ruin in the center of the Vale Father Holgar, accompanied by the marching strength of the twin Thanes of Karak Grimfast fell upon the forces of Lord Verullian as the dark elf highborn focused on unlocking the power of the ancient site.
At first it appeared that Lord Verullian had been caught unawares, as the long line of infantry and cavalry, dwarfs and men marching side by side, approached the derelict house in a brave show of strength that far out numbered the small, elite force of dark elves.
However, just as battle was about to be joined, and the guns of the empire spewed white smoke and burning death down from an overlooking hill, from around the manor house came a large force of wood elves under the command of Caranthir himself. These elves, acting against all racial proclivities and established understandings, fought savagely beside their dark kin, and against the alliance of dwarf and man.
The left flank of the alliance was held by Father Holgar’s mortar, guarded by Captain Williamson from Nuln, bearing a massive rifle that had been gifted to the Imperials by the twin thanes in a gesture of grudging respect. Accompanying the captain was a unit of hand gunners and a unit of crossbowmen, supported by Father Holgar with his honor guard of White Wolves, a small unit of pistoliers newly arrived from Middenheim, and a unit of huntsmen, also newly arrived.
A small unit of Knights Panther was sent to join the thanes on the right flank, where Lord Verullian himself had been spotted with his own honor guard of Cold One Knights.
The strangest addition to the battle was a powerful dark elf sorceress who sailed over the battlefield upon a gruesome parody of a Bretonnian Pegasus, whose very shrieks terrified the men of the Empire. This powerful sorceress scorched the very earth of Holgar’s strong point on the hill, killing countless men with howling winds of ice and steel. However, the brave pistoliers swept up from behind Holgar, and the entire Empire army unleashed its anger upon the sorceress and her escorting Harpy flock. The harpies were brought down by the massed fire of crossbow, handgun, and longbow. The pistoliers’ wrath swept the sorceress from her mount and threw her shattered body upon the smoking earth.
Unfortunately for the pistoliers, the Pegasus, in its mindless anger, swept straight at them, riderless and enraged. The young men fought valiantly, wounding the creature several times, but in the end it prevailed, running the last of them down as he attempted top flee.
Father Holgar, meanwhile, saw an opportunity in the confusion and charged past the Pegasus, attempting to fall upon two small units of dark elf warriors who were moving slowly up the flank. A unit of spearmen and a unit of Black Ark Corsairs, these dark elves were trying to maneuver into a position from which they could threaten the still-dangerous strong point on the hill.
Father Holgar chose poorly, however, and in his anger and mounting frustration he charged past the corsairs, attempting to catch the fleeing spearmen. The corsairs turned in a whirl of scaled, dragon-skin capes, and unleashed a barrage of hand-bow quarrels at the backs of the knights.
On the alliance’s right flank things seemed to be going better. The Knights Panther, moving slowly so as not to outpace their allies, maneuvered carefully in reaction to Lord Verullian’s movements. It came as a complete surprise when the dark elf highborn began to cast sorcery himself! Rare, indeed is the dark elf male capable of such a feat, but, using the unleashed power of the Vale, Lord Verullian sent magical attacks arcing across the battlefield at the startled Empire knights.
The attention of the cold one knights was suddenly wrenched aside, however, as one of the lesser hill thanes activated a magical device he had carried to the battle, and the cold ones lurched forward against their riders’ wishes to attack the thane’s own honor guard. Seeing the heavy cavalry dragged into combat against their will, Caranthir sent his own warhawk riders into battle as well, taking the thane’s unit in the flank.
The thane called out to Verullian in bold challenge, and the dark elf lord seemed to answer the call gladly. However, in the swirling confusion of the battle, with neither damaging the other, Verullian’s cold one reared up suddenly and, as the disheartened dwarfs turned to flee, the highborn’s mount fell upon the dwarf from behind, stamping him into the churned and bloody mud.
The cold ones whirled in place, ready to receive the charge of the Knights Panther, as the wood elf infantry flooded past, running into the stalwart dwarfs who had been waiting for the chance to face the wood elves again. The sight of the ancient treeman proved too much for Kurrick Steelheart, however. The thane fled from the monstrous creature even as it faced down his own honor guard. Dryads and warhawks descended upon the hapless unit as well, and it was crushed beneath the weight of numbers and sentient wood, fleeing past their thane and falling victim to warhawks’ deadly pursuit.
On the left flank the battle continued to grind on. The crew of the mortar had been killed early on by the now-dead sorceress, but the engineer Sigfried Manheim continued to work the large mechanism, raining death down upon the dark elves. Holgar’s knights withstood two volleys from the corsair’s deadly weapons before, taking two casualties, they fled the field, leaving once again before the battle was complete. The dark elves on the left flank had only two weather the sporadic shots of the remaining crossbowmen and the huntsmen, rallied and kept in the fight by Captain Williamson and Engineer Manheim’s stalwart examples.
The Knights Panther charged the cold one knights, and Lord Verullian issued a challenge of his own, calling out the panther preceptor in mocking tones. The knights’ champion fought bravely, was brought down by Verullian’s mount, who began to feast on the knight’s warhorse. Soon two more Knights Panther were laid low by the noble dark elf warriors, and the rest lost their taste for the battle and fled, ridden down by the laughing, gleeful foe.
In the waning moments of the battle Lord Verullian’s gaze swept the battlefield in full satisfaction. The deaths of the dark riders and harpies on the dark elf right flank were more than acceptable. Losses amidst the corsairs was not even worth considering. The loss of the powerful sorceress was painful, but even that loss could be made good now that the Valley was secure.
Seeing that all hope of taking the manor house was gone, Captain Williamson oversaw a quick and orderly retreat of the surviving Empire and Dwarf troops. Engineer Manheim spiked the mortar, and as the last of the crossbowmen and hunters covered the retreating allies.
In the end, less than 20% of the dwarven and human soldiery survived that bleak day. The forces of Lord Verullian were bloodied but unbowed, and the forces of Lord Caranthir were barely winded, having lost only a single noble, a distant cousin to the watcher of the cairns.
In the face of the bloodbath, the people of the Vale braced themselves for they knew not what type of horror.
Epilogue
For many months no further news was heard from the Vale. Father Holgar did not stop running until he reached Middenheim, and most of his force by that time was dead either from battle, disease, or starvation along the long forced marched. In his defeat he had been discredited in the eyes of the Elector Count of Middenheim and his own superiors in the church of Ulric, and never again was he allowed to lead forces in battle.
Of the twin thanes there was no further word. Empire survivors of the bloody last battle swore to their graves that at least one thane in the dwarven force had been killed by the Wood Elves, but whether or not it was Stoneheart or Steelheart has never been answered. It is known that most of the army that marched into the Vale with the brothers did not march out again, and that those that escaped made their slow and painful way south, to Karak Kadrin, the kingdom of the dwarven Slayers. There, the survivors most likely took the Slayer Oath to die in combat in an attempt to cleanse their honor of the loss of the Grimfast Vale.
In the spring of 2509 a small expedition was sent out from Middenheim in the hopes of securing some knowledge of what befell the men and dwarves in the Vale. This expedition contained no representatives of the Cult of Ulric, and was in fact a purely temporal event.
The expedition never returned.
For several years, as the Chaos Invasion of Archaeon through the entire known world into conflict, no one had a moment to spare in thought of the lonely little valley far to the north. However, with the mysterious defeat of the great Chaos Champion, and the failure of the End Times to manifest, a final expedition was sent north.
The men of this final expedition, upon returning to Middenheim, spoke of empty cities, of farms grown over with trees and vines. They spoke of meals rotting on the tables, of farm animals wandering free and feral down the lanes of towns and markets.
For there was not a single man, woman, or child in the Vale. It was as if the entire population of the valley had been spirited away in an instant, with no sign of where they had gone or who had taken them.
Of Lords Verullian or Caranthir there was no sign as well. The dark elf fortresses that had lined the River Arno were abandoned and empty, their dark stone yielding slowly to the harsh climate where the weapons of the empire had never been brought to bear. The copses and glades far to the east where the wood elves had been known to camp were gone, swallowed up by the massively expanding Green Deeps, which had spread to half of Tranquility Valley as if the mighty sentinel trees had stood there for a thousand years.
It cannot be doubted that Lord Caranthir gained what he had needed in the Vale. Whether or not he left warriors to guard the ancient ruins of his ancestors will probably never be known. But that the wood elf lord had successfully protected the site from the humans and dwarves who had sought to penetrate the mighty fortress cannot be denied.
But what of Lord Verullian? With mines, fortresses, and sorceress cities stretching from the Barrow wood in the north down to Holgar’s sacred plain, he had carved a minor kingdom out of the Vale, ruling nearly half the total land and a majority of the people living there. And yet, now he is gone.
Could he have taken every living man and dwarf from the Vale and returned to Nagaroth of his own free will? Might he have been destroyed by the very magical forces he had sought to master?
No sign of the dread lord known to the men of the Vale as Lord Verullian was ever heard again. However, the dark and foreboding Land of Chill is the home to scores of powerful lords and masters, and the entire population of a valley would raise fortunes in the slave markets of Karond Kar.
Only one thing can be known for sure, concerning this direst foe of the Empire. If he DID survive his adventure into the Vale, then he is out there somewhere. Powerful and wealthy.
And he will come again.
