We need to expand our territory, so I sent our scouts to find suitable land. To my surprise, they actually found some. We ventured there and began to build. I took charge of the most important task: commanding the Clanrats to reshape the ancient remains of a statue into the likeness of the Horned Rat.
Just as they were almost finished, some of Tzeentch's daemons appeared. We spread out—Queek Headtaker and his Stormvermin took positions in front of the statue, while the Jezzails, Rat Ogres, Clanrats, and the Doomwheel deployed behind it. Izak Grottle and I stayed near the monument. Meanwhile, my "brave friend," Deathmaster Chang Squik, disappeared again and never showed up.
Tzeentch's daemons arrived from the left flank, from behind the forest... a side that was completely unguarded. Queek claimed that only a madman would attack from that direction, as there was "only my statue" there and nothing important...
We tried to redeploy. The Stormvermin and Rat Ogres moved around the statue, and the Jezzails started aiming at the Tzaangors on foot, but the beasts managed to duck away. The Doomwheel closed the distance a little and zapped two of them with a warp-lightning discharge. The Clanrats headed toward a Gnawhole, but a weird column appeared near them, so they charged and destroyed it.
Then, Tzeentch's sorcerers began chanting. I managed to dispel some of their magic, and some spells were accidentally disrupted by another rival Tzeentch sorcerer, but some hexes still broke through. When Tzaangors on Discs suddenly soared into view, the Stormvermin charged them... but half of our warriors were immediately slaughtered, and those weaklings failed to kill a single foe! To make matters worse, Tzaangors charged from behind the forest, slamming into the Doomwheel and the Jezzails. Those cursed daemons slaughtered them all.
The Rat Ogres managed to burn one Tzaangor on a Disc, and the remaining Stormvermin finished off the rest of the riders. However, the Tzaangors on foot managed to close in on the statue and Queek. The Rat Ogres charged them, but the Tzaangors went into a frenzy. They nearly killed Queek, left only a single Rat Ogre standing, and even managed to damage my beautiful statue! And through all that, only a few of the beasts were killed.
Since I was safely behind the statue, I lacked a suitable target for my mighty magic, so I decided it was a better use of my time to repair the monument. The Clanrats had still not reached the fray, but the Stormvermin charged the remaining Tzaangors and a strange manifestation that the Tzeentchian sorcerers had summoned from afar. Yes-yes, those decrepit sorcerers were trying to keep their distance from our mighty warriors... it is a pity Tzaangors didn't keep that same distance from us too!
Just as the Stormvermin entered the fight, a tamed Ogroid materialized out of thin air, falling right onto the Stormvermin's halberds. They managed to slice him apart along with two Tzaangors. But the enemy fought back savagely, killing our last Rat Ogre and finally cutting down Queek himself.
In my head, I quickly ran some tactical calculations. I decided that this old ruin, which my subordinates had failed to properly transform into something worthy of the Horned Rat's grace, was simply not something worth dying for. So, with a hasty prayer and a promise of better statue to the Horned Rat, I cast a mass teleportation spell and escaped with the rest of our surviving forces.