There were many secrets on the Flamescar Plateau. Some of the secrets were quite well known, the best kept secrets of Flamescar Plateau. Some of the secrets were more secret, known only by a few. A few who had created the secret, inherited it from others or had learnt it from the tales or tomes. There were lots of real secrets as well, known only by handful or no-one. Is it really a secret, if no-one knows about it? Is it a victory, if the defeated do not tell the tale? History is written by those who are victorious, but that history is rarely accurate or comprehensive. To learn the real history, you had to listen at the taverns, asylums and at the servants’ rooms, read the tomes in well known, in scarcely known or in forgotten languages. Then learn what was actually true and what was not. Where there was a seed of truth and where there were none.
That was exactly what Zhik’Akoot-Cot, the magister and the leader of secretive Cult Hu, had done. Of course he had the magic to help him, his visions to help him and his god, mighty Tzeentch, to help him. He now knew exactly what had happened, what was happening and what will be happening. Well, not all, he knew that much. But in the end Tzeentch knew what would happen and Tzeentch would be victorious and Tzeentch would reward those who had been faithful. Zhik’Akoot-Cot was one of those faithful.
That faithfulness had led him to the Flamescar Plateau, on the Mortal Realm of Aqshy. There he had made his bastion at the Parching Waste, north east corner of the Plateau. There he had knitted his plans and his schemes to fulfill his mighty task. Luckily the area was filled with all kind of creatures, which he could use as his puppets. Lowly beastmen were easy to bend to follow his rule. The followers of Nurgle were tricked to help him, while they thought to be helping themselves – they were, of course, but only on short term. It was child’s play to trick them under his rule in order to help servants of the Grandfather to spread his gifts. That help would be short lived in the end, the diseases and rots would not last long on this Plateau.
War hungry followers of Khorne were even easier to lead, a small promise of battle and skulls was all that was needed. In the end, they thought they were leading the force, but that was only a puppet, Zhik’Akoot-Cot was pulling the strings. It would have been stupid to expect the followers of Khorne to see through that. And then there were the mortal men, who could be guided to follow his needs and still think they were having ideas of their own.
“Just like I planned”, a common phrase, when Zhik’Akoot-Cot was alone.
So far he had been kind of alone, the lone follower of his god on the Plateau, just pushing the others to follow his plans. Soon he has to summon some reinforcements, because the secrets of the Flamescar Plateau had lured all kind of distractions, which needed removals. There were fleets of Undead on the coast, mad orruks with orange skin had erupted from the caves and followers of Sigmar were spreading. That all was foreseen, as usual, but it was still something that only an army could resolve at this time. At this time, the time when he was needed to utilize the secret he was after.
Things were moving forward. The demons and followers of Nurgle had learnt the lessons and now easily followed Zhik’Akoot-Cot’s led. At first they were arrogant and not very powerful, but once they were badly beaten by the orange skinned orruks, they started to take things seriously. Nurgle’s grip on Aqshy was not strong at all, but step by step they would be gain might. All those steps would directly or indirectly get Zhik’Akoot-Cot closer to his goal, whether followers of Nurgle were a little powerful that time or not, made no difference.
He had already managed to lure those orruks far away from they home, just under his eyes. At the same time the followers of Nurgle got their lesson. When the undead fleets landed on the shores, he was ready with his troops. Both of the sides were waiting for a comet to land, but in the end Zhik’Akoot-Cot was triumphant and the undead spirits were banished. He had seen all the details in advance, none of his followers were slain and he captured the landing site of the comet. To make his command more visible, he created a garrison on the Black Iron Peninsula, close to his another garrison at Parching Waste.
Next there was a need to push back some humans, followers of Sigmar, the Thule Brotherhood. Keep your enemies close, but not too many and not too close. They were on the move on the Tears of Fate, and it would not be acceptable to have them there. Using a Realmgate he moved his warriors, mostly followers of Nurgle, but also a Khorne Slaughterpriest, there. Slaughterpriest, Vorax Hackmaster, was more than interested in collecting some skulls for this bloodthirsty god. He was also important part of Zhik’Akoot-Cot’s ploy to lure more of those fierce and suitably mindless warriors to fight his fights.
“Warm blood runs and boiling blood is warm”, Vorax Hackmaster.
Where the two armies met, there was a coming landing site of another comet, as predicted. Humans had a wizard amongst them, but he was no match for Zhik’Akoot-Cot and his companion, the Great Unclean One, a greater demon of Nurgle. Once the enemy commander was out of action, the wizard soon followed. After that the groups of human were no match to his warriors and demons. Even the arriving reinforcements were slowed down by a host of nurglings, before the final blow was given shortly after the comet had landed. After garrisoning this landing site as well, Zhik’Akoot-Cot had three areas under his control and the garrisons formed a nice triangle to please the God of Plagues. Vorax was also pleased and impressed, and it should not be difficult to get his followers to join the next fight. Giving them some namely command and promising a good fight, would be more than enough. In the end they were not that different from those orruks, which he fought against at the Vitriolic Swamps earlier.
Gathering his army, he made more ploys to closer to his goal and the glory of Tzeentch. Soon his army would be too strong for him to hold alone, he would need some help from those, who would be loyal to his god – only. But that time was not yet.
“The name is Slambo and I’m here to kill”, said the lone surviving Chaos Warrior after the battle.
Surprisingly he was not actually a follower of Nurgle, like the others, nor a follower of any other Chaos God. He walked his own path, but didn’t mind if some of the Chaos Gods were walking the same path to the same direction. It was hard to say, if he was happy to join Zhik’Akoot-Cot’s army, but he joined nevertheless. There was a promise of good fights and supplies, so why don’t follow that path.
That path was leading to the Eye of the Pristmaticon, where an ancient Chaos altar rose. Zhik’Akoot-Cot was aiming to host a ceremony there, a ritual of immense power to the bend the world to his will. He had hoped Vorax to bring some bloodthirsty warriors to guard his job, but he only managed to bring some beastmen Gors, who were followers of Khorne. He was furious, but didn’t let it show. This was not what he was expecting. The main Khorne army was still far away, so he had to settle for these. Nurglings and Slambo were guarding as well, while the Great Nurgle Demon, Uncle Phileas, was consulting him on the ritual.
As was expected, the ritual was interrupted. Some orange skinned Orruks were there again. The beastmen Gor were quick to die and fast to run, when a volley of arrows and couple of orruks smashed into their unit. With a combined magics of Zhik’Akoot-Cot and Phileas the orruks were stopped, but Vorax was left alone by the corpses, dizzled by the fight and orruk magic. Soon he collapsed. In the meanwhile nurglings and Slambo were easily slowing and killing the other orruks, while Zhik’Akoot-Cot tried to concentrate on the ritual, throwing some spells on the other hand (he has three of them) to protect the altar.
Orruks were all but gone, but their shaman was there still, and he was interested in to interrupt the ritual. With some magic he quickly flew to the direction of the altar, unopposed. The ritual was almost complete, when that orange skinned lunatic climbed to the altar. There was lots of magic in the air, the ritual was cracking magical energy and Zhik’Akoot-Cot and Uncle Phileas were blasting bolts of lightning and change, magic vomit and what else on the shaman. In the end the ritual was complete and the shaman was nowhere to seen. He was probably blasted somewhere else in the high energy explosions of spells and ritual.
It wasn’t ideal, but the ritual was no ready. Also the altar was no secured and small garrison was built there to protect it. The grand scheme was taking a form. Even Vorax managed to woke up and stand still after the battle was ceased. He was not happy, but he was alive. The main body of his army was coming from the southwest, through the lands of orruks and spectres. While waiting for these reinforcements, Zhik’Akoot-Cot was even more certain, that some loyal followers of Tzeentch, members of Cult Hu were needed. He knew where to get them and while waiting for the possible followers of Khorne, he could spend some time to get their attention.
North East area of the Plateau was quite comfortably in his control now, he needed to gather some forces now before continuing his mission elsewhere. The secrets were just waiting for him to come and reveal them.
The promised reinforcements of Khorne were slowly moving from the south. They seemed to be enjoying more about the fighting than marching, though. There was a huge army coming, Exalted Deathbringer with his Gorechosen in the forefront, but it was moving slowly and fighting constantly with unimportant opponents. Zhik’Akoot-Cot sent some smaller demons to guide the Khorne on the right path, but the progress was slow.
While the army was marching in the Riven Depths, it got interrupted with a bunch of undead creatures. The area was surrounded by orruks, mortal men and those undeads, so it was just a matter of time, before a bigger battle would take place. Promises of battle and reward lured those two armies below the ground level in a search of a treasure and fame.
Gorechosen was in the forefront and they quickly found the treasure. The undead surrounded them, beating a chaos spawn on the left flank and ignoring brimstone horrors on the right. Forces of Khorne formed an irregular circle around the treasure and were ready to fight the undead. There were no skulls to claim, no blood to bleed, but a good fight nevertheless.
Things got from bad to worse when Deathbringer with the treasure charged the undeads nearby and others failed to follow him. The champions got separated in the battle and several got slain. It all looked quite grim, but then something unnatural started to happen. The earth had shaken before, but now they were real earthquakes. It would not be surprising to see the mortal Khorne followers to be slain in an earthquake, but they seemed to know how to take safe steps and survived with small bruises. The undead were other story, somehow the antic magics of the subterranean caves trapped the doomed souls when they were caught by the falling stones.
The Deathbringer with the treasure got slain and by some death magic the undead forces were able to pick up the treasure and carry it. Undead were suffering as well, it was possible to kill them and the magical earthquakes were causing problems to them as well. The treasure bearer got slain as well as the other undead, but followers of Khorne couldn’t claim the treasure, nor investigate it more. They had to fall back from the cave before it falled down to their necks. Some of them survived anyway and there were no undeads around. It was a narrow victory, but a victory nevertheless. The survived warriors joined the main part of the army and continued marching to the north. There was no time to build garrison, Zhik’Akoot-Cot was expecting them to arrive sooner than later.
Nevertheless, the forces of Khorne had now really made their mark on the Flamescar Plateau and they were moving in with force. They were now in the south, but going north to join Zhik’Akoot-Cot and his motley army. The great plan was coming together, even though the treasure of Riven Depths stayed hidden. For now. One more secret, but would it be revealed soon or stay as a mystery for a longer time. Maybe the army of Zhik’Akoot-Cot, Cult Hu, would take another expedition to those mysterious caves and reveal its’ secret, at least to Zhik’Akoot-Cot himself.
Vain Vader 