At the edge of the White Mountains, where their jagged alabaster peaks met the sea, Grand King Jorvin Starbreaker leaned against the balcony of his watch-tower, ebon-plated gauntlets clasped tight around the railing as he loomed forward. Across the vast Korvassan straits, the monarch looked out, as dark clouds loomed above the southern subcontinent. The veteran of many conflicts (Despite his comparatively young age for a Dwarf) felt an unfamiliar twang strike a cord with him. Something he was not prone to feeling, and had not felt as often as he had now, since the last otherworldly incursion that threatened the mortal realms.
Dread...
He was no fool, he was a strategist at heart after all, but it did not take a strategist to realize. Without the runesmiths of yore, the Dwarfen host was particularly vulnerable against these dreaded foes. Axe and hammer cut down any mortal in swift fashion, and it was that Jorvin knew well. But against such a foe as they faced now? He hadn’t an idea how to defeat them. Yet his pride, (what some would call arrogance) shielded others from this fact. He declared his grudge, his intent to return the Hammer of his forefather to the hands of his kin...Yet their foe was unlike one he’d ever faced, doubt crept into his mind for a moment, before being hushed by Dwarven stubbornness.
Korvassa would fall, of that he was convinced, for while he respected the southrons, he did not expect them to resist the Legions of Hellscape-realms without some form of divine intervention, and Jorvin did not put much faith in the gods. He also knew that the stream of refugees that poured across the bridge would choke the roads, and make the movement of his throng difficult indeed. Thankfully, Jorvin had already begun preparations for tunnels to be dug. With any luck, and Dwarven ingenuity, they would be finished in time for the warhost to make their stand where he stood now, upon that mighty westward gate.
They would come for the skull, he was almost certain, just as certain he was in the fact that it would be a high toll of blood to halt them here, but what other choices did the sons of Urguan have? A gauntleted hand ran over his face, rubbing it tiredly, before shifting down to touch one of the trinkets that hung from his neck. Beside the religious amulet was a locket, bearing the images of his twin daughters within it. Children who he’d conceived in the aftermath of Atlas’s fall. How young and naive he was then, to think that was traumatic. If only his younger self could see him now...
He shook his head, clearing his thoughts before turning to a nearby aide, a young Legionaire with a short, scruffy beard. He only wore the occasional scar, meaning he must have only fought in the most recent war or two. Internally, Jorvin scoffed, and wondered if the beardling would survive to see another.
”Ah’re tha’ throngs readeh? Ah’ want ‘least two thousand Dwarfs readeh tae make battle.
”We must hold t’em ‘ere...Ah’ doubt t’ey will give us much more toime tae prepare, ‘es tha’ fortifications underway?”
“Brathmordakin give us strength...”