Hell Pit
Overview
On the northern spur of the Worlds Edge Mountain, in the blasted wasteland known as the Troll Country, is located the infernal breeding pits of Clan Moulder. A overpopulated stronghold which burrow down into the walls and floor of a ragged chasm in a snowy mountainside. Volcanic pools at the bottom of the ravine raise a greyish plume of noxious steam, and the foul stench is incredably potent. Worse still is the dreadful cacophony of screams, cries and shrieks that constantly rise out of the frozen chasm. [2a]
The Chaos Wastes are barren around Hell Pit, save for packmasters scouring the lands for dangerous beasts to capture. Chaos monsters and mutated beasts offer the best chance for Master Moulders to extract enhancements for existing creatures, or even to create a new kind of beast. Expert hunters will trail a Manticore, Hydra or Chimera for days waiting for an opening to strike. Captured creatures are led back to Hell Pit in cages. [2a][3a]
History
c. -1450 IC (Imperial Calendar) Grey Lord Malkrit brought his followers into the wasteland and bid them burrow deep into the land. There they built a new stronghold where they could experiment of the varied warped beast that they captured from the land above. [2b]
The Rat Ogre was first created in Hell Pit. [2a]
The only assault on Hell Pit to gain headway occurred during the Great War against Chaos. Warrior tribes and warherds of beastmen allied in a attempt to raze Clan Moulder's capital.[2a] The Chaos armies forced their way inside the warrens, laying waste to the first three circles in a blaze of blood and ruin. The minions of the Dark Gods were halted, as innumerable Giant Rats were driven forward by Packmasters to bog down the foe. The invaders were eventually surrounded and wiped out when Throt the Unclean led an entire army of rabid Rat Orgres, many of them especially augmented, to completely clear out the tunnels and warrens. [3a]
Around 2480 IC Throt captures a Blyndwrym dragging it back to the Pit [3b] where it is force fed with warpstone and after much effort the first Hell Pit Abomination was created. [3c]
Throt leads an army from the pit to engage Aelfric Cyenwulf and his horde in -2518 IC. Cyenwulf retreats and invades Kislev instead. [3b]
Locations
Great labyrinthine tunnels of Hell Pit spiral down in nine expansive circles, worming and twisting as if they were a vast intestinal tract, all crammed with huge numbers of mutated, tormneted creatures. [2a]
- Breeding Pits: To continue their insane crossbreeding, flesh-bonding experiments, Clan Moulder requires constantly toiling slaves and captured creatures in staggering multitudes. The nine circles of Hell Pit are rife with Breeding pits - laboratories and flesh distilleries, testing grounds and skin forges which mean that Clan Moulder can continue their quest for stable monsters to sell or rent to other clans.[2a]
- Pit Bottom: Failed experiments are discarded here where those that survive squirm, crawl and flop after each other to feed. [2a]
Defences
If the toxic fumes don't put off an enemy's approach to Hell Pit, then perhaps the twisted death throes of failed experiments will. These shambling, still mutating beasts are rejected from the warrens to spend their last miserable days howling in agony amidst the barren rocks, attacking anything they happen to sense. Despite such defences, Hell Pit is regularly attacked. Every few generations a boastful over-reaching champion of the savage tribes attempts to conquer the sprawling stronghold. Warriors of Chaos may be individually mighty, but the assaults are foolish, daring to assail the overwhelming numbers housed under the streaming vents of Hell Pit. Merciless death awaits the lucky. [3a]
Inhabitants
Sources
- 1: Warhammer: Thanquol: Book 2
- 1a: Children of the Horned Rat, pg. 9
- 2: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (4th Edition)
- 2a: The Under-Empire, pg. 8
- 2b: The History of the Skaven, pg. 13
- 3:Warhammer Armies: Skaven (7th Edition)
