"This is not my idea of a fun night on the town, Master Hector," Geofe said over his shoulder to the older man he served. The ex-servant had travelled far and wide in the Empire since the merchant had first caught the then-rogue attempting to lift the fat purse from his belt. "Once again, you have your own self to blame for this. Sigmar only knows why I made you my valet instead of leaving you in that sewer in Nuln." Hector didn't mean it, of course, but the dim light from the dripping torch didn't ease his fears concerning the inhabitants of the damp, roughly dug, earthen tunnel the were picking their way through. "I'm no danged dwarf to be crawling around in this muck. By all the Gods, Geofe, what possessed you to tell those fools above that we could solve their rat problems?" Geofe smiled thinly as they came to a large intersection. "It seemed like the thing to do at the time and even this is more interesting than sitting on that barge of yours as the river..." He stopped suddenly as a scraping sound came from the left passage and held up his hand for silence. Each drew their weapons and stood back to back in the warren as a group of bipedal rats creatures came into the light. The rat creatures wore ragged armor and were armed with wickedly jagged long knives, a fitting sword for their small stature. "By all that is Holy, they DO exist!" exclaimed Hector as the skaven charged the two men with the battle cry of "DIE-DIE MAN-THINGS!" yelled in squeaky voices....

The evil among us

Rats. Nobody really likes the thought of rats living in our cities. Disgusting creatures that survive from the offal within our sewers and garbage. These foul creatures appear in every known form of literature, from fantasy to histories to the far future of science fiction. Even in space, there is no escape from them as they are so small that they are able to stow away in containers and breed like vermin. It is the same in the Warhammer world with a frightful difference. In the Empire and all through the known world, the Children of the Horned Rat have spread their burrows and wait patiently to take advantage of any opportunity to destroy the surface world.

Welcome to your worst nightmare

The skaven are mythical beasts. Figures of fairy tales used to scare small children into behaving. Things of nightmares and sinister horror tales told around campfires. They aren't real. Just stuff of legends created to make your skin crawl and give color to the tales spun by traveling bards at the taverns and carnival folk to earn a penny or two. Except that they are real and the subject of the greatest cover-up the Empire has ever undertaken. For the Empire authorities know full well that the panic that would be caused should the skaven become common knowledge would upset the delicate balance of order they have to maintain in order to stop the advancing hordes of Chaos in the Northlands.

The first section of this volume details the knowledge that the Empire has gathered regarding this underground threat. Here are the very words of the Prietess of Verena, Ammelie Meyer are reprinted for the first time. At great danger to herself, the priestess interviewed many who have had first hand accounts with the savage beasts. She has even managed to collect and dissect the bodies of the more common sub breeds of skaven and has detailed notes and drawings of her work in this text. Her efforts have been buried in vaults, hidden from the eyes of the commoners and should one find and read one of the copies, they may be in grave danger. Not because what she has collected is untrue, but because it just might be BELIEVED should they tell of it. The Empire cannot have such things bandied about. But the reader's greatest threat is not from the Empire, but the skaven themselves. It seems that the skaven are quite content to allow this cover-up to remain in force. The fewer who know of them, the better it is for their plans. One that day when they at last have the right circumstances in play, they will be able to rise up from the dark tunnels and destroy all of the surface dwellers much easier if everyone is duped into disbelieving in their own eyes.

History

The skaven are rather short sighted and selfish creatures. They care little for the past and do not keep any records as man does. For them, there are only two times worth thinking about: Right now, when they are not the absolute rulers of the world and Very Soon, when they will be. But Warhammer has expanded the knowledge base of the history of the skaven to give us all something to think about and to be able to understand the motivations of these terrible creatures. This 4500 year history is briefly marked with certain events that the Empire knows to have happened, but keep those facts hidden to all but the most persistent of seekers. Many of those who dig too deeply have been known to simply ... disappear.

Society

The clans of the skaven have a very well defined social structure. Not anything as we know it, but each of the clans fight and bicker amongst themselves for status and each of the individuals do the same. The stronger and smarter skaven will rise in power and status, at least until some jealous member kills them or they become too brave for their own good and die to outsiders. Perhaps one of the few reasons that the numerous skaven hordes have not taken over is their own internal fighting. This section gives full details of the different clans and how they interact with each other.

Settlements

Even more frightening than the idea of intelligent rats is the fact that these vermin have managed to create massive colonies under almost every major city in the world. This Under-Empire has tunnels that reach to all parts of the world and they even have some technology that is far in advance of anything the surface peoples have created. One item of note is the Farsqueaker that allows instant communication between warrens world wide and their underground locomotives for transport of their armies quickly (warprails). The skaven are patient and cowardly, so they await a time when they will be able to rise up and wipe out everyone with little opposition. The Storm of Chaos war just might be what they have been waiting for.

Warfare

Like the rats they are evolved from, the skaven prefer to use stealth as their foremost weapon. They use a number of dirty tricks to rid themselves of their enemies on the surface from plagues that they have created to poison and slavery. They will almost always wait to enter a combat until they have overwhelming numbers at their disposal and have no fear of individual death. In skaven society, the individual is only as important as what it can do to advance the whole. Within this section you will find the most common types of skaven warriors, the weapons they use, and the Dark Lore that they have developed, complete with 24 new spells for it. The section on the skaven warriors is treated much the same as how monsters in the Old World Bestiary was but the advance schemes are listed in the the next chapter. The skaven also have a number of warp stone artifacts, each with its own great power as derived from the foul warp stone that is the fuel of the Chaos masters. The bulk of skaven technology is also derived from the evil substance and is listed in this section. If the Game master wishes, he or she can create all new items of technology for his skaven hordes because the rules for doing such is fulled detailed.

So you want to play a Skaven

Then this is the section for you! Although skaven are not conductive to role playing in a group (they are cowardly and will run rather than fight a tough opponent) the people at Black Industries has set up this section for players to use. It is in the same format as the player character part of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play core rules volume, so it is fairly simple to follow. Here you will find the complete stats of 22 skaven careers complete with new skills and talents. Also found here is a table for experimental improvements of your skaven character. careful with this one, a bad attempt can mean death or distortion of the character. But who cares? You are skaven and will accept the risk for the greater good.

In the Under-Empire

It is no good to have skavens as a character without some adventure for them. This section provides a good number of adventure ideas for running a skaven player group. Also is a neat collection of new monsters that live in the Under-Empire, 15 in all.

And the rest

Wow, once again the guys at Black Industries have out done themselves with this product. Not only do they manage to provide more information about the subject than the entire first edition of the game had combined, they make it detailed enough for players to work with. New talents, new careers (for skaven), complete history and even technology. What more can you ask for? How about this, a full adventure for your players, ready to roll and easily converted for use anywhere in the Empire. What, you want more? OK, they give it to you. This adventure is set up so that either skaven characters Or the normal surface dwellers can run it. Each encounter has a different viewpoint according to what side is playing it. Man, this book is fantastic and useful for both players and game masters. Perhaps that is why the re-sale on line stores have it listed for as much as $350 a copy! Do yourself a favor, keep checking in at greenronin.com to see if they get it back in stock and buy it from them directly for the $29.99 cover price.

Recommended: Yes