From the Journal of one Wigmar Heck, pt 59 (The charge of Brass Keep)

 

10 Pflugzeit, 2500

Brass Keep picket, Eastern Middenland

Back home, spring will be in full swing. 

Not so in the shadow of Brass Keep.

Instead, the land is eternally swathed in cold mist, and dark clouds cover the sky, always.

But Ankh's grace is upon me, I live in his light, and the daemons of Chaos fear my presence.

This Brass Keep is a foul place, this old necromancer's keep. Legends of its vile disposition run back centuries, if not longer. It is claimed that Magnus the Pious purge and purified it. Maybe he did, but why then is it guarded by a wall at the mouth of the valley, with two companies of soldiers and three batteries of guns? There is an entire barony ruled by the Kärzburdger family, whose only task is to man this wall!

(and whose gunpowder the Skaven had gotten hold of - more about that later)

That was a rhetorical question, by the way.

 I just led a charge against the Keep, a coalition of Nordland, Middenland, Knights of the White Wolf, and my own men. We faced off against a horde of Chaos. Deranged men, mutants, beastmen, chaos warriors - and a genuine daemon of Khorne. I cast down the foul creature, smiting with my left and my right, until he lay broken on the ground, begging for mercy. But Ankh gives no clemency to the darkness, and I banished him back into the Warp.

It was a tough battle. A third of our brave warriors we lost (or will lose in the coming days as they succumb to injuries). I myself took five blows that would have ended any lesser warrior. But I stood fast in arms and faith and could not be undone.

Unwilling to risk more valorous men for little gain, I gave the order to fall back to the wall. The lump of warpstone sitting in the Keep's courtyard is as big as a house, and cannot easily be moved.

Now, we must rest and wait for the rest of my army to arrive. Then we shall put this matter to final rest.

Addendum: I seem to have picked up a troop of wild wood elves along the way. It's a long story that I'll save for another day, but I think they will serve me well.