Though the Wardens of Burden have sworn to protect Hammer’s End, they are no idle guards, waiting for attack. They are an offensive force par excellence, and it is their duty to ensure that the enemies of Hammer’s End be annihilated before they come within sight of its walls.
As such, when the star-peering seers of Hammer’s End reported to the Wardens of an impending Impaler attack, the Wardens were far from passive. Tcimmera bade them look not just into the future, but the present and past too. In doing so the seers were able to pinpoint what the Impalers’ plan was; to attack a nearby Lumineth city known as Glimmerweavers’ Refuge.
The Syari had foresworn making and using weapons of terrible power, but their creations could not be easily disposed of. They had tried to keep the weapons under lock and key away from prying eyes, but the Killaboss Zorgut da Sly had captured one of their number and tortured the information from them. The Kruleboys would assault Glimmerweavers’ Refuge, slaughter the Lumineth, and take for themselves their powerful weapons to turn upon the Wardens who had humiliated them so; and upon Hammer’s End.
Tcimmera could not allow this to pass. She marshalled the Wardens of Burden, and marched for Glimmerweavers’ Refuge. Thanks to the efforts of the Seers and a hard march, the Stormcast arrived just in time to intercept the Kruleboys. The battle-hungry Orruks turned away from the aelves and towards the Stormcast, hungering for a fight and revenge against their hated foe. Volleys of missiles were loosed at Tcimmera and Ahvria as they present the largest target, but together Stormcast and Stardrake weathered the barrage, and returned it with star-fall of their own, destroying the Killabow after it got off a lucky shot into Ahvria’s flank.
When the Wardens finally struck the Orruk lines, the Gutrippas dissolved in an explosion of gore and rent bodies, only slowing the Wardens’ momentum for a short time before the Impalers’ Boltboys were exposed. A Sloggoth rampaged into the wounded Tcimmera and Ahvria, but proved little match for the ancient beings’ fury and might, ended with an overpowering blast of stellar fires.
As the air was filled with Dracothian roars and flying bolts, Zorgut da Sly sidled towards Tcimmera and Ahvria atop his Greater Gnaw-Beast, Gna. Whatever the odds, the Killaboss had a kunnin’ plan to remove the Lord-Celestant from the field, and from there he could grab enough of an advantage to still manage to make away with some of the Syari’s weapons. Palmed in the Killaboss’ meaty hand was a phial of beastkilla slop, brewed special by Swampcalla Lobbok for just this eventuality. Zorgut had learned of the incredible carnage a Stardrake could wreak, and sought to slay Ahvria himself, then Tcimmera.
Unfortunately for Zorgut, Tcimmera had a kunnin’ plan of her own.
As Ahvria dealt the finishing blow to the Sloggoth, Tcimmera suddenly spun to face Zorgut and pointed him out with her hammer. She had guessed that he would attempt to kill the mighty warlord and her mightier Stardrake companion, and had set herself up as bait. She roared out the Knight Excelsior battlecry;
“For the Glory of Sigmar!”
Upon the command being given, the Tempestors leapt forwards and riddled Gna with lightning-charged bolts, suppressing it in place with withering fire. Before Zorgut could recover, all Dracoths near him had turned their maws towards him, and opened their lightning-filled jaws. By the time the afterglow faded, nothing remained except a pair of charred corpses.
With Zorgut’s annihilation, his Orruks’ will broke, and the rest became slaughter. Only two survived in the Impaler force; the brute Murknob Ukka-Tuk Slugfinga fought like a fiend after Zorgut’s death, and was able to fend off a pair of Fulminators with enough determination that their injuries prevent them from pursuing him. Naffgit, Lobbok Weirdteef’s personal Pot-Grot and fifth subject of sadistic experimentation, quickly surrendered after his master was torn apart by Dracoths, and was taken prisoner by Bartheliman out of pity.
Not only had Hammer’s End been protected against future Impaler incursion, but the Syari of Glimmerweavers’ Refuge had been saved. In thanks they pledged to aid the Wardens of Burden with their craftsmanship, particularly in finishing the building of the Stormkeep Anvil’s Beginning.
They also humbly requested that the weapons the Kruleboys had attempted to take from them be moved to the Wardens’ protection, to be locked away in the Stormvault Crack Within Darkness with the condition that they must never be used or see Hysh’s light ever again. Tcimmera accepted that responsibility; not only did she understand the grave matter at hand and honoured it appropriately, but in truth the Extremis Chamber was the only weapon she’d ever need.
Perhaps the oddest development of this battle was the one prisoner the Wardens had taken. They had fed the Pot Grot perfunctorily, but to their amazement Naffgit treated the meals given to him as luxury. As Bartheliman coaxed more of the grot’s story from him between bowlfuls of stew, righteous wrath filled the Wardens who listened as Naffgit detailed his enslavement at his Swampcalla master’s hands, and the cruel ways he’d been abused as a guinea pig.
After conversing on the matter with Bartheliman, Tcimmera declared that Sigmar was a Chainbreaker, and the Wardens must follow in His example. Naffgit was freed and offered a place to stay at Anvil’s Beginning. In exchange for all the food he’d want and protection from the Impalers, he’d give the Wardens what information he could; which, in truth, wasn’t much, but Tcimmera didn’t particularly care.
In addition, Bartheliman discovered a growing talent for story-telling in Naffgit, and with some encouragement set the grot on the path to becoming a scribe for Anvils’ Beginning. Naffgit’s first attempts at chronicling the history of Hammer’s End have so far been prone to misspelling, exaggerations, outright fantasy and sometimes sheer incomprehensibleness, but Bartheliman considers them hopeful first steps.
