The Mortal Realms are reeling from Vermindoom. The Horned Rat has been (mostly) successful in its scheme to ascend to the pantheon of the great Chaos Gods, while much of Blight City is now bathing a vast area of Aqshy in the wan green glow of warpstone. Billions of Skaven are pouring through gnawholes and attacking anything in their path – and the Stormcast Eternals are struggling to hold territory only recently won back for Sigmar from Chaos.
One such prize is Hel Crown, a fortress-city built around a realmgate to the Realm of Chaos, which was until recently occupied by raving worshippers of Khorne. Conquered at a great cost of lives, its realmgate permanently closed through extreme measures, Hel Crown had been in Sigmarite hands for less than three years when the Vermindoom struck.
It’s now a critical location in the new war, for the fortress lies just to the east of the Adamantine Chain – on the very edge of the Gnaw, where Blight City has erupted into reality. Hel Crown’s defensible seaport structures are much more suited to launching attacks against Skaven territory than the treacherous land bridges of Helbridge.
Should the forces of Order hold Hel Crown, it would be the ideal beachhead from which to strike deep into the heart of the Gnaw. The Skaven, for their part, are all too aware that this flank of the Gnaw may yet be seized by the storm-things after their first encounters with the Ruination chambers. Rats have swarmed forth in their thousands to claim this vital port, further curdling its surface and causing the very air to scratch at the lungs of mortal intruders. Its surface is now pocked with warpstone mines to obliterate unsuspecting strike forces whilst Jezzail sniper-posts line the island’s edges. Hidden monster pens full of Moulder experiments writhe with mutant filth, just waiting to be sprung free via carefully laid traps.
The battle for Hel Crown may be the only chance for the Stormcast chambers to break the rotten skin of the Skaven invasion. Their orders are clear: to slaughter every last leering rat, reclaim the city in earnest and discover how to reverse the corruption these creatures have wrought.
