Inspired by conversations with Nathan Dimitrov.

Having barely made it out of the crumbling cave alive after their encounter with that strange star-faring warrior Kol Badar, Grombrindal the White Dwarf slung Malekith’s broken body over his shoulder and allowed the mists to take him to the Icy Peaks of Kraka Dorden, one of many homes to the Norse Dwarfs and in particular known for its metalworking.

An old friend of the White Dwarf, King Logamir Ulfarson allowed Snorri to bring the accursed dark elf into his hold to commence treatment snd reconstruction despite his own fears. However, Malekith’s wounds were severe. His meteoric casing had been blown open by the star-man’s weapon of which the Dwarfs could not identify the nature of its ammunition and Malekith’s already burnt body had been further subjected to trauma from the shell’s subsequent explosion inside his torn body. The Dwarfs went ahead in trying to cure the former Witch King both through cleansing rituals invoking Valaya and by using as much spare Gromril, tin, iron and quartz as they could to patch up the hole in Malekith’s suit. As this went on the Dark Elf’s mind receded, entering a deep coma to prevent his subconscious mind of being distracted from its task of drawing on the Circlet of Iron’s power to keep his body alive.

Days turned into weeks and Grombrindal saw no sign of Malekith recovering, for even then he remained just as motionless, just as silent, just as devoid of meaningful life as he had been the day he was brought here.

As time went by Grombrindal made an effort to become one with this hold, sharing dinners with the King and his wife Queen Friga Alaricdottir of the Zhargrun clan and aiding the hold’s guards in maintaining peace and order throughout the city and its nearby territories. However, a storm was brewing.

A warband of Khornate daemons had broken into the mortal plain, bolstered by the ruinous forces of the North and their leader, the Herald of Khorne, the Gorequeen, Valkia the Bloody. Despite her title, Valkia lacked her usual esteem in Khorne’s view as of late, having neither secured new recruits during her last mission in Kislev nor claimed the undead soul of one Ulrika Magdova Straghov for her master. As such, this attack on Kraka Dorden would mark her chance to redeem herself in her master’s eyes, to let the blood flow and the skulls to crack once more beneath his throne.

As the warband approached Grombrindal helped the locals prepare their defences to fight off the coming chaos horde until on the final morning before the battle was set to take place, Grombrindal went to visit Malekith for what could be his final time.

“Yer meant ta talk te people when they’s in a coma. Don’ they say tha’?

I canny know if ye can hear me Malekith … but I’ve nevarr heard of people comin’ out of a coma an’ continuing the conversation. So, I guess it be unlikely. I suspect it be more for us than for ye. Te make it feel like I be not so useless an’ helpless. Tha’ I’m not just waitin’.

I’ve nevarr been much of a talker aye laddie? I don’ go in for tha’ poncy elf stuff. But I’ll talk if it be helping.”

Grombrindal took a long drawn out sigh for a second, wondering whether any of this would really have an effect or not, before continuing.

“Ye know, this must be tha longest I’ve ever looked at ye before ye turned away, usually out of shame mind ye. I’ve even watched ye in yer sleep ya know. Sometimes I swear I can see yer eyelids moving beneath tha’ mask of yers – only te then learn it’s nothing but tha flicker of candle-light.

I wonder what ye dream about in times like this. Do ye think of me? Of our mission? Of yer quest?

I doubt it. I want te think you’ve changed. That our alliance means something to ye. But le’s be honest. I be nothing but a ghost te ye, a memory of another lifetime. If I had nevarr been brought back after I died, would ye have cared that ye broke yer promise? Would ye have tried te make amends? Tried te make peace between elves an’ dwarfs? Nay, I want te think so… but no. I don’ be a fool – a ghost yes, bu’ not a fool.

Ye won’ say it te me face but I know ye still lust for tha’ elf throne. Will ye evarr stop wantin’ it? If I released ye from me bonds right now, would ye still fight by me side or would ye go back te yer ol’ ways?

One day I fear ye will betray me again, just like ye did before … an’ tha’ time there will be no goin’ back. I fear everythin’ will be in vain. But yer not gone yet Malekith and I know ye’ll be back. So I say good fortunes, Malekith. We both have a battle te win.”

Grombrindal took a bow before his friend’s lifeless body and left the chamber, making his way to the hold’s ramparts. Valkia’s army were here and their skull cannons immediately proceeded to open fire on the city gates as a long column of some 2,500 chaos knights, bloodcrusher cavalry, chaos warriors, chosen and bloodletters charged toward the city’s faltering gates and its smaller garrison of only around 600 Dwarf combatants or so. As Khorne’s gorequeen flew high above her warriors, Grombrindal joined the defending Norse Dwarfs, ready to fight by his kin’s side.

….

• Laugh React: The chaos forces strode toward the hold’s walls and the Dwarfs prepared to greet the enemy as only Dwarfs could, with a hail of cannon fire.

Great cannons and organ guns appeared at every single platform, window and opening along the hold’s walls and let loose, engulfing the enemy in explosive fire before adding to this damage by unveiling two flame cannons positioned by the city gates. The artillery went on with its devastation, annihilating almost half Valkia’s army before they even reached the gates as libes of rangers and thunderers joined in on the action from the city’s ramparts.

Of course, the rest of the army still remained and thus did manage to enter combat. The skullcannons finally blew the city’s gate open, thereby enabling the bloodcrushers and chaos knights to finally make contact with the enemy. The chaos cavalry were vicious, tearing through dwarf warriors like matchsticks. However, the three Dawi royals were ready for this development as they countered the cavalry charge by charging in to plug the breach alongside a contingent of Norse Dwarf Berserkers, a unit similarly ferocious to the slayers of Karak Kadrin who traded in the orange mohawks of their Southern kin for the pelts of whichever Northern monsters they’d slain. The berserkers fought with renewed courage for none of them held even a glimmer of fear for their deaths and so together with the White Dwarf and their lieges they were able to keep the forces of chaos at bay while the remainder of the Dwarf warriors coalesced around the invading chaos forces. This forced the chaos warriors to blob up around the gates and make them an even easier target for the wall’s artillery crews.

After seeing most of her forces decimated already, Valkia decided to turn tail, abandoning her army to die by Dwarf steel.

(Once the battle is over and the chaos warriors are vanquished, Snorri will go back to tending to Malekith’s wounds until he recovers.)

….

• Angry React: Dwarf artillery opened fire upon the advancing chaotic army but it seemed they would have a problem on their hands as the Blood God’s sword maiden dove straight into battle. Valkia flew between the various artillery crews, attacking one artillery after the other while always making sure to withdraw and attack the next platform once guards neared to defend themselves from her wrath. With all this commotion going on, Khorne’s cavalry force took immediate advantage as the bloodcrushers in particular stormed through the hold’s opening lines of infantry defending the gates.

The dwarfs attempted to retaliate by deploying their berserkers only to find that the arrival of the chaos warriors, chosen and bloodletters more than made up for their pitiful reinforcement strategy, especially once King Logamir Ulfarson tragically fell to a group of Khorne chosen. Upon seeing her husband die, his armour removed and his head severed from it neck as the Chosen recited their “Skulls for the Skull Throne!” battecry, Queen Friga made a desperate attempt at vengeance only to come undone as Valkia abandoned the walls, flew over and thrust her spear Slaupnir through the Dwarf queen’s back, leaving Queen Friga to bleed out by her husband’s decapitated corpse.

The odds were rising by the second. Grombrindal’s axe twirled in a flurry of strikes as all around him his kin began to fall and more and more ruinous minions came to surround him. He pressed on with his fight, almost becoming nauseous at the constant sight of scarlet all around him and then it dawned on him. Where was Valkia?

He couldn’t see her. All he felt wherever he looked where the fiery hides of bloodletters, the iron-clad red of chaos warriors and the stench of juggernaut breath. And so, he came to accept the inevitable upon finally looking upward. There, only 15 feet or so above his head was his foe, hovering in place thanks to the constant beating of her wings. He prepared for her to strike, clenching his axe to respond to her attack as he continued to mow down the heretics around him though when it finally came, Valkia’s attack turned out to be too fast for him anyway. She dropped from the heavens and shoved the tip of her spear through his eyes with deadly precision, killing him instantly.

As the former High King of the Dwarfs perished and the chaos warriors finished off the remaining Dwarf garrison, Valkia flew off into the hold’s great halls in search of further slaughter.

….

….

….

(Prelude to Sad, Wow and Love React)

The horde of chaos warriors and daemons advanced toward the city gates, their artillery blasting the city’s doors open while Valkia flew high to target the various Dwarf skirmisher and artillery crews atop the fort’s battlements.

The gates soon blew open and the chaotic cavalry forces were the first to storm inside, their devasting feral mounts and armoured riders tearing through the hold’s ranks of warriors and berserkers and leading to the first high-profile slaughter of the day as Queen Friga was gored by a bloodcrusher’s hooves.

Upon seeing his beloved fall and the ramparts descend into ruin as chaos warriors joined their Dark Valkyrie in dismembering the Dwarfs stationed above, King Logamir gave the order to fall-back to lower levels. The Dwarf force backed its way into the hold’s great halls and mining crevices, attempting as best they could to thwart flanking attempts by chaos knights, while the mass of chaos chosen, warriors and bloodletters continued to push them ever deeper into their tunnels.

The battle went on for some time with the Dwarfs seeming to hold on despite insurmountable odds only for the battle to turn against their favour once more as Valkia finished off at the hold’s walls and joined the main scene of the battle, instantly impaling King Logamir on the end of her spear. With both their monarchs dead, the Dwarfs would surely buckle soon.

….

• Sad React: The battle was lost. It had to be for very soon Grombrindal would be the only Dwarf warrior left standing in Kraka Dorden as more and more berserkers gave their lives in Grimnir’s pursuit. Thus, Grombrindal made a decision in that moment to run. He abandoned his kin to be massacred by the chaos forces and retreated back to where Malekith still laid in his inactive state. Without any time to spare before Valkia’s horde arrived to kill them both, Grombrindal took hold of Malekith’s body and summoned his mists to take them far from here…

….

• Wow React: Grombrindal abandoned his kin though not to retreat, instead he viewed it as a tactical calculation. Valkia may be a hideous daemon princess on the outside but inside, she was still a hunter at heart and no hunter would ever let a stray safely emerge and escape from its pack. Valkia flew after Grombrindal, leaving her forces behind to fight the remaining Dwarf warriors.

The two heroes to their people clashed deep within the tunnels of the hold. Valkia charged first, rushing forward with her spear only for Grombrindal to use his short height to his advantage by quickly evading the spear. Valkia struck again, this time rearing for a shield bash.

The shield collided with Grombrindal’s shoulder and just as this happened, the daemonic jaws of the daemon Locephax emerged from her shield and bit down on his neck, tearing a left chunk of his throat out. Grombrindal groaned in disgust, touched by hellspawn! Bleeding… this thing dared make him bleed! But this would not be his end, not yet. If this were to be the Whtie Dwarf’s final day, he would make sure there were no heretics left standing by the time his eyes shut their last!

Grombrindal yanked the Daemonshield from Valkia’s arms and returned her favour, bashing the face of her shield against her own armoured chest. The jaws of the daemon Locephax emerged once more and proceeded to gnaw through her armour at ridiculous speeds, grinding and biting with such ferocity that it pierced her armour and began to eat its way through her stomach. Flesh, metal, scales, even bone – none of them were off the menu for just as the Blood God cared not from whence the blood flowed, so too would the Daemonshield devour everything in its path until finally, Valkia’s body fell apart at the waist with nothing left to keep it together.

With the Valkyrie destroyed, Grombrindal returned to his Dwarfish brothers and sisters with renewed confidence. He couldn’t bellow orders, he couldn’t even speak for that matter as his throat continued to bleed out but so long as he drew breath, vengeance would be his. His axe swung in a thousand directions, his boots stamped on the skulls of his enemies, forbidding their master from adding them to his collection and the shimmering runes of his cloak Valayan cloak made him unstoppable. Eventually, Grombrindal bled out and gave way but not until every single follower of the Dark Pantheon who lurked in these tunnels laid destroyed at his feet.

In his final moments, he gestured with his hands for the remaining Dwarfs whose lives he had saved to continue caring for Malekith in his stead. Grombrindal would accompany the Dark Elf no longer, his time had come. The Ancestor Gods awaited his presence. It was time for the White Dwarf of Karaz-a-Karak to pass on.

….

• Love React: The forces of chaos pushed the Dwarfs further and further back into their hold until finally, they were nearing the room where Malekith was kept. Through this period Valkia turned her sights to Grombrindal, the two trading blow as his axe smashed against her shield over and over while she desperately tried to find an opening for her spear. Snorri swiped overhead, she evaded. She tried to stab low only for him to bash her stomach with his shoulder. His fists were clammy, his body dripped with sweat as the enchantments around Valkia’s armour drained Grombrindal’s muscles of strength and his eyesight blurred but the White Dwarf never surrendered. Instead, he gave an almighty final battlecry as he prepared for one final attack.

The chaos warriors and daemons froze. Grombrindal and the Dwarfs looked on in confusion and then they looked behind them.

Malekith was awake. Malekith stood and was in the process of drawing spell power from his Circlet of Iron before unleashing it on their foes. Valkia and her daemonic host howled in agony as their presence in this world faded, as their mortal forms collapsed and turned to dust and their souls returned to their master’s domain. The chaos warriors collapsed to the floor, their life essence draining from their bodies as tendrils of solidified darkness took hold of them and transported their souls back to Malekith, invigorating him once more to full health as he dropped to his knees.

Upon seeing the chaos forces recede Grombrindal took a sharp sigh of relief. “I thought we might’ve be goners there. Are ye alright, lad?”

Malekith remained silent for a moment as he remained kneeling and raised one arm to feel the top of his helmet. Normally when he felt it, he could sense dark power stir from it thanks to the Circle of Iron but now, this was different. He felt nothing, the Circlet of Iron had been depleted.

“Ye didn’t need to do tha’… Can it be restored?” Grombrindal asked, immediately sensing what Malekith was about to say to him.

“Of course, but it would take some years wandering the Northern Wastelands for that.”

“Ah, not a perfect solution then?”

“Perhaps not. Fortunately, this spellcraft rejuvenated me so it seems you won’t be getting rid of me just yet, Snorri.” Malekith took a moment to inspect the room before remarking “It looks like I missed some action here.”

“Yer could say that.” Snorri responded.

“Well, I think we best leave this place, don’t you? Oh, and Snorri?”

“Yes lad?” Grombrindal inquired.

“You will never just be another ghost. Not to me…” Malekith responded.