This is a rapport made up by Hans Buchenholtz, one of the only humans to be entirely accepted by the dwarfs. He is one of the only people in the Empire being able to interpret the slight differences in the meaning of Kahzalid (the dwarfen tongue!). Here is his rapport to the Emperor Karl-Franz, describing the biography of Kurti Garazi An Gorogi.
My Revered Emperor,
Now the time has come to write the biography of Kurti Garazi an Gorogi
Since many centuries Barak Var or ” the Gate to the sea”, the most unique amongst dwarfen strongholds, is ruled by Kurti Garazi an Gorogi. This Kahzalid name means in the language of Umgi (“men”) : “the Fearless Reveller” (or “Fearless Toper” which is in Dwarfen tradition almost if not entirely the same!).
Claiming to be a direct descendent of Snorri Whitebeard, claimed to be the famous “Grombrindal” (“the Forefather with the white beard” ; also known by his enemies as “the white dwarf”). Grombrildal shows up to help a dwarf or even an entire dwarf clan or army in distress. Although this far from proven, this is off course the version favored by Kurti and even if this is not the case, Snorri being his forefather is widely accepted. Snorri was the famous king of Karaz-a-Karak, the only king ever to be respected by Aenarion, the king if High Elves of Ulthuan.
Kurti was born in Karaz-a-Karak, his father being an
engineer in something called “compjuter” (note of the translator : this word is
not known to men and the science itself is assumed to have been lost over the
past centuries!). Kurti joined in the good tradition of dwarfs a party that was
to revenge a grudge against “grob” (“greenskins”) under the command of the King
himself. Trained in both archery (crossbow) as well as in hand-to-hand fighting
, he soon replaced Onki-Un-Scrati (“which can be translated as “the dirty poor
prospector” who was named after his numerous mining prospections without any
result!) as his unit’s champion. Under Kurti’s command, it was exactly his unit
who made the difference and the end of the bottle, sorry battle!…
As a result, Thorgrim Grudgebearer, the King of Karaz-a-Karak promoted him to one of his personal bodyguards. Soon after (in dwarfen terms!), two events were to change Kurti’s life completely…
A few years after his promotion to bodyguard (which is off course nothing to a dwarf!), King Thorgrim decided, after having studied “Dammaz Kron” (the “book of grudges”), to counter a vampire incursion in the World Edge Mountains. The incursion was lead by Graf Von Drachzahn, a vicious blood dragon thrall, who killed an uncle of Thorgrim a few years before, when attacking the defenses of an Karak Kadrin outpost (the city of King Ungrim Ironfist, the slayer king). At the end of the battle Thorgrim, carried by Kurti an three others on his thrown of power, and Drachzahn stood eye to eye. Just as Drachzahn blew his poisoned blade to cut Thorgrim’s throat, Kurti parried at his own life’s risk with his warhammer ! This gave Thorgrim the chance to “spike” the vampire thrall with his sword, thus ending the battle in seconds. Out of gratitude for this brave act, Kurti was accepted as the king’s own kin and was promoted to Greatbeard, the longbeard’s unit leader. During the official feast following this promotion, which was said to take as much as 2 weeks and 21 taverns (feasts like this are commonly measured in terms of the number of taverns that have been drunk dry!). It is also said that the feast was ended abruptly and had not ended for the arrival of a messenger from Barak Var.
The King of Barak Var, the fortress/harbor hidden in the deep cave system carved out by the Black Gulf and known for its trading activities, had only one son. Throd Hunki (“the carrier of heavy rocks”) also nicknamed (but only behind his back!) Throd “Kruki” (named after the word for a “seemingly promising vein of ore which gives out suddenly ; an unexpected disappointed” which tells enough about Throd!). One night, after numerous fights with his father, about how to rule the city and organize the defenses, he took a small group of his tipplers and took them tot Mordheim to find their fortune. This expedition was to end in another “kruk” or even a “krunk” (rock fall or disaster!)… When he did not return after several years, and with the old king growing older and sicker every year, Barak Var risked to lose its king without having an heir to the throne. Thus spoke the messenger asking for the King’s help in order to find Barak Var’s heir… or the nominate another heir to the throne !
As Thorgrim learned about this situation, he immediately understood the utmost importance of his decision whether yes or no to send a search party to Mordheim to look for Throd. If Throd was still alive, his return after a new king or heir for Barak Var was nominated, could lead to a civil war ! If Throd was dead, it would be important tot prove his dead by retrieving his body, giving him an official burial, which could free the way to the acceptance of a new heir. If he choose to do nothing for the time being, he avoided to risk of a civil war, but risked to have a void on the throne of Barak Var, giving the city away to it enemies by lack of a true leader. The strategic and economic position of Barak Var were decisive : Throd was to be found dead or alive!
The next question was “who is to lead the search party?”. The candidate had to be clever, brave, accepted by his men,… all good qualities that most dwarfen leaders had ! But on the other hand, he also had to be strong of mind ! More than anybody else, the King knew that the lure of gold, fortune and wyrdstone in Mordheim could infect even the strongest dwarf ! He knew that his kind were keen on gold and jewelry and that a state of “gold rush” would keep the search party for far too long in Mordheim if it would not even mean the death of all team members in the city of the damned ! Thus torn between all aspects of this matter, he bought himself some time and said that he would consider this request until the next sunrise. The King is said to have paced up and down his quarters for the whole night, considering every aspect and consequence of his decision that he had to take. Many still claim that he took his decision when dawn was about to break ! At that time, he described afterwards how a divine smoke or mist filled the entire room and that thirteen of his forefathers rose from the mist. All carried shining armour, long white beards and crafted warhammers. They approached in a v-formation : six forefathers to the right and six to the left with right in the middle Grungni, the god of mines and smiths, himself ! This is what Thorgrim said afterwards, as he could not deny the divine intervention because many a dwarf saw the smoke and an unearthly light ! He claimed that his forefathers told him what to do and gave him a series of prophecies although he never openly told the exact message. He did not even confirmed or denied whether the prophecy was only linked to the Barak Var’s heir of if it were a prophecy for centuries to come ! Many claim that the prophecy foretold the events for many generations to come and some doom-mongering dwarfs even tell that the end of the Old World of the entire dwarfen race was foretold (which is almost the same for a dwarf!).
Anyway, by non the search party was assembled under the command of Kurti and 11 others were to accompany him (just like the 12 forefathers accompanied Grungni !) :
- Bang Olufsen, the engineer
- Kroki Chipsen, the dragon slayer
- Brat Pidsen, the beardling
- Snoti “the nose”, the beardling,
- Huey, Dewy and Lewy Baraki (“the hard ones”), the thunderer triplets
- Brico and Gamma Duwit-Jerselfsen, the hammerers / carpenters
- Tip and Top Christiansen, the twins with axes
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 Kroki Chipsen, the dragon slayer |
 Brat Pidsen, the beardling |
 Snoti “the nose”, the beardling |
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 Tip and Top Christiansen, the twins with axes |
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Even before the sunset of the same day, the party left. And forth they went, with shining armour, properly combed long beards (some of them!) and the best weapons available ! After five weeks of forced marching, they reached the outskirts of Mordheim in an desperate state : their armour was a bit rusty, the beards tangled and uncombed. The dwarf innkeeper of the “the Bucking Pony” (although the name could also be translated as “the prancing pony”. As dwarfs never do ride on the back of a pony, Kahzalid does not know any vocabulary being able to describe all pony related activities!). even refused to give them shelter for the night and called them “wanaz” (a disreputable dwarf with an unkempt beard ; a terrible insult!). It was only after showing King Thorgrim’s seal, that they could stay for the night ! Luckily, they did bear their cross with pride and with much sense of humor ! They even called themselves “the dirty dozen” and said that this name was to become famous centuries after their quest.
Anyway, there was no room for laughter and joy once they reached the town of Mordheim. They had not even set foot on Mordheim soil, or they were attacked by a bunch of skaven ! Under a series of “squeeks” and “sqriets”, the rats were reduced to some fur, bones and saw-like teeth (Kroki even compared them with his friend Black Deckerson’ s (the slayer!) face which was heavily mutilated by an attack of an ogre!). Nevertheless, this was to be considered as a serious warning if they were to enter the city of Mordheim itself !
After three weeks of deprivation and hardship (they had emptied their casks of Bugman XXXXX long before their arrival in Mordheim!) they became desperate… They had fought numerous battles, covering every district of the city. They were victorious in fights against Skaven, Marienburgers, Witch Hunters,… until they met with fate …
In the vicinity of the river, close to the bridge of 7 sighs, they found, covered in dust, dried blood and something slightly resembling gore , an dwarfen helmet… but this discovery had an high cost ! It was Brico, who was in the meantime unable to carry an hammer as Gamma cut Brico’s thumb while cutting wooden figures in the desired shape (any resemblance with existing money wolves is purely intentional!!!)… so like I said it was Brico who stumbled over a pile of bricks. Brico fell over, and broke his leg whilst launching in the process the helmet right to the middle of the nearby square where it came to rest in the fountain… Gamma saw what happened, ran to his brother (giving away his cover) and was hit in the eye by a lost “drunken gang” arrow !
Brat Pidsen saw his chance to prove his worth an dove to
the ground, crawling to the centre of the square and the fountain, looking for
cover behind each and every pile of rubble. He made it all the way to the
fountain but was ambushed there by a deep purple monster (murmuring “sweet child
in time..” whatever this may mean!). The manlike creature used its tentacle
(where its arm used to be!) and began squeezing Brat. Brat, who used to be
handsome (i.e. for a dwarf ; for a brief period of time he even considered a
theatre career!) was now mutilated beyond any recognition. Severely injured, he
still was able to pick up the helmet and could throw it in the direction of his
friends. Kurti and the rest of the warband charged the hideous monster but it
disappeared even quicker as it showed up!
They decided not to follow the monster as darkness fell over Mordheim. A hard day : 2 friends lost and one crippled dying of gangrene the morning after !
The day after they returned to the square were they found
the helmet and followed the creature tracks, apparently leading to a tower in
ruins where a thick black smoke coiled into the morning sky. Even before they
reached the tower, they discovered other parts of dwarfen equipment, all covered
in blood… The triplets Baraki lead the way and scouted the terrain that lay
before them. They had just given the “all clear” sign as another horrible green
creature jumped upon them slaying each of them with his mighty claw. The Baraki
brothers gave their last “quack” as their necks broke. Horrified by this sight,
both Kurti and Kroki charged, killing the possessed soul with breathtaking
strokes of their axes… the creature fell to its knees as a blue thunderbolt
struck to kill Bang Olfusen, the engineer, who followed just behind the axe
sweeping dwarfs. In the mean time, Snoti “the nose” was fighting with a
humanlike creature wearing a hideous demon mask, while Tip and Top Christiansen
were dealing with three club-carrying Brethren. Tip went down together with two
of the Brethren, Snoti killed his opponent but sank to his knees immediately
afterwards… things were looking bad ! At that time, the Possessed warband’s
Magister showed up, wearing a black robe with flame motive at the bottom and a
hideous red hood. He mumbled some ancient forgotten incantations and just as
Kroki was ready to throw one of his axes, a flame bolt escaped from the
magister‘s hands, piercing the naked torso of Kroki ! With his last effort,
Kroki managed to aim an threw his axe… seconds later (but they seemed like
hours!) the axe cleaved the magister’s chest.
Kurti looked around him, only to discover that he was the only one left still standing on his feet on the square. As there was no time to morn over his fallen comrades, he went on to the tower. As he approached the tower, a sickening stench of burned flesh met him, and only his strong will kept him from running away. He was a bit distracted though by this stench and the sight of the horrible things he saw (carbonized corpses, heaps of skulls, human skins hung up to dry,…) and was almost surprised by the purple monster they met before. Long was the fight after the monster initial blow which ripped apart Kurti’s left arm, but you only need one good right arm to swing your double handed axe as the dwarfen saying goes…
After two hours of battle both opponents were tired and severely injured. Gasping for breath, they circled around each other until finally Kurti discovered an opening in the monster’s defenses … and with a blow able to cleave the mightiest rock, Kurti struck… and both of them fell down !
After three days of restless sleep, Kurti woke up as the only survivor of the fight. The stench was still there, as were all other horrors ! He began investigating all remains and unfortunately he discovered several dwarfen corpses and skulls all mutilated far beyond recognition. Later, he found almost the entire armour and gear of Throd. The quest had reached its end : Throd was never to become Brak Var’s King!
He returned to Karaz-a-Karak not victoriously, but heavy
minded and morning for his fallen comrades and about how they gave their life
only to retrieve Throd’s armour !
Thorgrim was pleased though : a civil war was prevented and the choice of a new heir to Barak Var’s throne was obvious. One his own clan, the trustworthy Kurti who managed to track Throd, the former heir to the throne was to become the new heir. Soon after (still in dwarfen terms!) the old king died and Kurti became king, leading the citizens of Barak Var to many a victory!
And I, I watched over the wounded Kurti for the whole three days he lay down on the square, after his fight with the possessed. I witnessed the fight and gratefully as only dwarfs can be for taking care of him, he and the dwarfen people accepted me as the first umgi to become a dwarf… That is how I learned their language and customs.
