With the eyes of the hold upon the vermin beneath, the grobi horde of the mountains grows unchecked.
The horn at the East Gate96 is sounded across the
peaks as the surface citadel of the hold is attacked by a vast greenskin horde. Over a hundred grobi perish as the first attack is repulsed, but not without the deaths of twenty-one clan warriors. King Lunn here- by declares a grudge against the greenskin tribes of the Snarling Sun and the Howling Moon for this latest wrong.
The royal hammerers of the king reinforce the cita- del but it is for naught as the garrison is forced to give up the outer wall to the greenskins. Over a hun- dred dawi fall in this latest attack alone. Their names are scribed in the book of remembering.
Attacks from the rat-kin below continue unabated and no further troops can be spared to bolster the cit- adel. Many of the outer buildings of the city are abandoned; ale stores, drinking halls, brewhouses and clan halls that have stood for ages are ruined, the art of their former creators lost forever. Dreng tromm!
The grobi employ crude war machines and gather a great band of trolls to launch rocks at the citadel keep. Though their aim is poor, such is the amount of missiles levelled that great destruction is wrought, including the tower-mounted bolt throwers and
grudge throwers97. Thane Halkenhaf Stonebeard, Cit-
adel Gate Keeper98 is slain, eaten by a troll, and the
inner curtain almost falls. King Lunn hereby declares
a grudge against the creature and all its foul kind99.
The grobi assaults against the inner curtain wall are unrelenting and the tunnels of the upper deeps are also attacked. With a heavy heart, King Lunn declares all efforts to hold the great wall to be abandoned. All remaining defenders are brought back into the citadel keep as a full retreat is ordered. King Lunn redoubles the defenders below at the Gate of Jewels. Reports reach the king’s chambers that the rat-kin attacks in- tensify. All routes to the lower deeps of the hold are sealed.
96. The East Gate is one of the main approaches into Karak Eight Peaks and can be reached through Death Pass. It is still guarded to this day by a stout watchtower, recently reinforced by King Belegar and his kin. The gate itself is vast and impressive as is all dwarven architecture, though it too has recently been repaired and refortified with additional towers and the inclusion of static war engines. 97. The citadel of Eight Peaks was well protected, heavily garrisoned and bore several war machine emplacements at key points around it. These defensive measures were to prove in vain, however, as the
goblins and Skaven attacked through tunnels. See ‘The Demise of Eight Peaks’.
98. See ‘Hammerers’ for more details on gate keepers. In this instance, as the citadel of Eight Peaks was above ground, the gate keeper had the dual responsibility of ward of the king’s chambers and the citadel gate.
Hammerers
It is a great honour to be inducted into the warrior brotherhood of the hammerers, who perhaps most closely resemble our own greatsworders in their capacity as bodyguards. The hammerers are the chief guardians of the king and therefore trusted above all others. As befits warriors of the royal clan, hammerers enjoy a lofty status in dwarf society, the equal of any artisans or craftsmen.
To become a hammerer, a warrior of the clans must demonstrate fierce courage and determination in battle. The role of hammerer is bestowed only by royal appointment in a long and prestigious cer- emony—which I could perhaps liken to bestowing a knighthood—that culminates in the gifting of a great hammer. This weapon seals the oath taken by the hammerer and is the symbol of the sacred duty he has undertaken.
Even by standards of dwarfs, hammerers are stubborn, certainly beyond the grasp of my understand- ing. Should they be protecting a dwarf of royal descent, perhaps even the king himself, then they are even more intractable. From my research, I have also gleaned that hammerers even stand watch over the king’s chambers and at all hours, never speaking, and forbidding entry to all unless ordered other- wise.
Chief among all the hammerers is the gate keeper. It is he who carries the key to the king’s cham- bers around his neck—the only other dwarf of the hold besides the king himself that has such a key—so that none may enter there without his knowledge.
Some tomes purport that the appointment of hammerers as the king’s royal bodyguard and protec- tors stretches back to the reign of King Morgrim Blackbeard in –1245 (IC). If such accounts are to be believed, it was Kadrin Redmane who was the very first hammerer. An obscure reference in the Mount Gunbad Book of Grudges relates a visit made by King Morgrim Blackbeard to the gold mines in an effort to bolster the morale of the embattled miners who had endured many punitive goblin raids.
Ironically, as the king was touring the forges, a horde of night goblins broke through the walls of the mine in their hundreds. The king’s bodyguard, then warriors of the royal clan, were overwhelmed such was the ferocity and suddenness of the attack. It was Kadrin, then a master craftsman, sweating over the anvil of the forges, who reacted first to his king’s plight. Taking up his forge hammer he went to the aid of his liege, the other smiths following his example. Together they fought their way free of the mines and escaped with their lives. For this valorous deed, the king bestowed a rune ham- mer upon Kadrin Redmane, and it is my belief that from this even the gifting of the great hammer to all inducted hammerers was first derived. Kadrin’s tale does not end there, but suffice it to say that if it is true, a great tradition of the dwarfs was established that day and hammerers have been the pro- tectors of the kings ever since.