Far below the Southern World’s Edge Mountains, the ancient Dwarves carved out a city to stand
as a symbol of their wealth and power.
Karak Eight Peaks, the City of Pillars, rivaled even the great Dwarven capital with riches
beyond measure and walls unbreakable by man, Elf, or even the Dwarves themselves.
The grandeur of its halls and the warmth of its people, however, are now a distant memory.
Karak Eight Peaks today is a terrible ruin, with the great work of its creators defiled
by the Night Goblins of the Crooked Moon Tribe.
Yet at the time of the fall of Karak Eight Peaks, Crooked Moon was just one among many
different tribes to claim a patch of its ruins as their own.
It struggled against the other Goblin tribes of the mountains, the few remaining Dwarves,
and the manipulative Skaven - ratmen who dwelled far below.
Crooked Moon was led by Ibrit Dungstrangler, a giant of a goblin whose name is best left
unexplained.
But it was within the Backstairs Boyz, a sub-tribe of Crooked Moon, that the goblin who would
ultimately conquer the entirety of Karak Eight Peaks rose to prominence.
A slave, small even by the standards of his own kind and known therefore as “Runt”,
had begun to display a kind of greater cunning.
While the other slaves toiled in the mines, Runt slipped away to explore the greatest
wonders of the mountains.
Eventually his excursions were discovered and his secretive dealings with the Skaven
exposed.
He was cast out from Crooked Moon, left to die in the wilderness that surrounded Karak
Eight Peaks.
Runt was quickly forgotten and Crooked Moon persisted in endless skirmishes against the
other would-be conquerors of the mountain.
It was the Skaven though who gained the upper hand.
In an enormous offensive, they poured out of the depths in such numbers that Crooked
Moon was split in two.
Chieftain Ibrit Dungstrangler was isolated in the eastern passages of Karak Eight Peaks,
cut off and surrounded.
As the Skaven prepared to complete their ultimate conquest of the mountain, they were themselves
attacked from below.
A great battle erupted within the Dwarven Hall of a Thousand Pillars and Dungstrangler
found himself rescued by an unlikely rival.
The goblin slave Runt, rather than dying on the open plains beyond the mountain, had somehow
won the loyalty of the Wolf-Rider tribes.
With the help of his old Backstairs Boyz, he rallied the western half of Crooked Moon
to his banner.
In a series of brilliant attacks, well beyond the capabilities of normal goblins, he had
scattered the Skaven forces from Karak Eight Peaks, driving them back into the deepest
tunnels.
Crooked Moon was now a tribe with two leaders.
Dungstrangler in the eastern holds of the mountain and Runt in the west.
Eager to again be the sole chieftain of the tribe, Dungstrangler fell into a trap and
was eaten alive.
With Dungstrangler dead, Crooked Moon was united, with tales of the genius of Runt spreading
like warpfire.
In the aftermath of his greatest victory, Runt took on a new name, anointed by the shamans
of Crooked Moon: Warlord Skarsnik, King of Karak Eight Peaks.
Under Skarsnik, Crooked Moon has been transformed.
Very few goblins have ever risen to the level of warlord, most are often crushed underfoot
by their larger Ork cousins.
Skarsnik’s leadership however has inspired every species of greenskin and they have performed
strategic feats unheard of since the time of the Azhag the Slaughterer.
In the Battle of the Jaws and the Battle of East Gate, doomed Dwarven armies found themselves
surrounded, at the mercy of those they had formerly underestimated.
As with all Night Goblin tribes, the Shamans of Crooked Moon make terrible use of subterranean
mold and mushrooms.
These dangerously hallucinogenic substances are mixed into the tribe’s potions, medicine,
or even their food, creating armies of fanatics and magic-users as much a danger to themselves
as anyone else.
They have also trained the Cave Squigs of the Mountain, mindlessly vicious creatures
who charge into battle at their taskmaster’s command.
Skarsnik is accompanied by one such squig, an eternally loyal companion named Gobbla.
It was Gobbla who feasted on Dungstrangler, Skarsnik’s old rival, and the squig has
eaten well on men, skaven, and Dwarves in the years since.
Skarsnik knows with certainty that while he may style himself the King of Karak Eight
Peaks, as long as a single Dwarf lives, his throne will always be challenged.
Already a regiment of Dwarves has reclaimed the Square of Merscha in the uppermost levels
of the city.
They dare not stray too far beyond the range of their cannons and guns, however.
Every Dwarf that has done so has vanished in the dark tunnels of the mountain, only
to reappear, their beards cut and heads mounted on long poles, just within sight of their
companions.
A message to all, that Karak Eight Peaks belongs to the Crooked Moons.
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