TM ® TM To War! ar approaches once more. In the playing games to help tell a story set in depths of the Great Forest, at one of our gaming worlds. Wthe very heart of the Empire, This time around, we reveal a tale armies from all over the world are of the dangerous forests of the engaged in a desperate search for one of Warhammer world. The Nemesis the greatest magical artifacts ever created Crown, an item of immense magical – the Nemesis Crown. potency, was hidden away in the deep The Nemesis Crown is Games woods of the Empire by its creator Workshop’s latest worldwide campaign. Alaric the Mad many long millennia These multi-national happenings are your past. There, he hoped it would remain chance to throw yourself completely into undiscovered and the world free of the our gaming universes and immerse yourself evil he had inadvertently created. in the visceral experience of tabletop war. Perhaps it would have been so, Each campaign has a specially written were it not for the activities of a group storyline, the outcome of which your of Dwarf Miners who stumbled upon games help decide. The hub of the the crown while investigating an old campaign is an online web site, where you mine. News of the discovery has spread Dwarf Runesmiths such as can post the results of your own battles and throughout the Old World, and now this one are capable of creating immensely powerful edge your faction closer to victory…or armies from many nations are combing artifacts. The Nemesis Crown defeat. These campaigns are a great period the woods, searching for the crown, is one such item. of hobby activity, where everyone is and trying to claim it for their own. THE NEMESIS CROWN Join Games Workshop’s global campaign and lead your army to glory, as whole nations struggle for the powerful Nemesis Crown. Contents 2 The Story of the Nemesis Crown 4 Nemesis Crown Map 6 Using the Map 7 The Contested Territories 12 Why We’re Fighting 24 Gaming Ideas 25 Campaign Details/Sign up 26 Council of War Scenario 28 The Unquiet Dead Scenario 30 Blood Beneath the Branches Scenario The campaign charts the struggles of pulse of the conflict by means of regular 32 Events & Mega these armies and presents a chance for web bulletins and Hobby Center activities. Battles in U.S. glory for one or more factions. The While the history and setting of the Hobby Centers campaign is also a chance for you to campaign is detailed here, the final result is meet new opponents and write a glorious up to you, the gamer, to decide. Any history for your own army in the blood of faction can emerge victorious, and it is your foes and perhaps make a few possible that there will be more than one friends along the way! winner. What is certain is that the more Throughout the period of the campaign, victories you gain for your faction, the there will be participation events in Games better its chance of winning the campaign. Workshop Hobby Centers and independent You can find out more about how to retailers as well as at larger gaming events sign up and join in later on in this like Games Days. Through these events supplement. There are also more details in and the games played in your own home White Dwarf magazine and on the internet. or gaming club, the campaign will take But first, let us look, my liege, to the shape. As the results are reported online, field of battle. The fate of your army, your the campaign’s storyline will unfold on a honor, and maybe your people rests upon weekly basis through a series of ongoing your shoulders. reports and stories describing the progress The Nemesis Crown awaits you, of the war as the hunt for the Nemesis somewhere within the beast-haunted Crown intensifies. Keep your finger on the depths of the Great Forest! nemesis.games-workshop.com 1 NemesisThe For long centuries, the Nemesis Crown has rested hidden deep beneath the Howling Hills. Few know of its origins, of its mad creator, or of the terrible curse that will echo down the ages if ever it is disturbed. A Bygone Age power. For long decades, Alaric wandered Two and a half millennia ago, the Old the dark roads of the Old World, through World was a wild and benighted land. mountains and forests. Nowhere could he Savage beasts and fell beings haunted the locate the material he sought. As time went forests and plains, and survival for the on, he became more and more obsessed, warring tribes of Men who dwelt there prompting Dwarfs and men to give him a hung ever in the balance. It was into this new name – Alaric the Mad. savage world that Sigmar was born, and his While passing along what is now the first great deed was the rescue of the Dwarf Old Forest Road, which at that time, was King Kurgan Ironbeard from a greenskin little more than a well-trod woodland path, raiding party. Ironbeard gifted Sigmar with Alaric was ambushed by a band of Skaven. a great runic warhammer – Ghal Maraz – Though now aged and stooped, Alaric was with which Sigmar fought against the a veteran of many battles and dispatched greenskins and ultimately united the the vile ratmen with ease. From nearby, he scattered tribes of Man. felt the presence, as only a Master Years later, Sigmar and Kurgan stood Runesmith could, of some unknown but together at the Battle of Black Fire Pass, incredibly powerful ore. He followed his and in recognition of their great victory, uncanny instinct. Deep beneath the Kurgan ordered his Master Runesmith to knotted roots of a twisted oak, he found a forge the Runefangs. chunk of material strong enough to hold the Rune of Ages – warpstone. Alaric Alaric the Mad barely hesitated before he pried the chunk That Master Runesmith was Alaric, creator of rock out of the ground. Perhaps his once of some of the greatest weapons ever wise mind was clouded by his wielded in battle. A century in the making, overwhelming desire to prove himself the the Runefangs were gifted to each of the greatest Runesmith the world had ever Empire’s Elector Counts. Some say that the seen, or perhaps the evil of the warpstone century Alaric spent toiling at his forge reached out and touched his already drove the Runesmith to obsession and weakened powers of reason. paranoia. His peers considered the The next chapter of Alaric’s story is Runefangs Alaric’s greatest achievement, rarely told. It is said that he traveled to the but the Runesmith himself refused to Grey Mountains, where he constructed a accept that he had reached the height of mighty forge fueled by the volcanic his art. lifeblood of the peaks. Alaric worked upon Alaric sought a new rune, and in time, the weirdling ore day and night, until he found a variation on the Rune of Kingship had produced a gleaming crown, upon – the Rune of Ages. This rune would not which was struck the Rune of Ages. only retain and distill the wisdom of each As Alaric looked upon his creation, his of its bearers and pass it on to those who mind cleared. He had been blinded by followed but also give the bearer control of madness and obsession. The crown would his very destiny. Any who carried the rune not distill the destiny of those who wore it, would become master of his fate and that but would instead draw out even the of his entire race. smallest shred of evil intent and transform But Alaric found that no matter what him into the vessel for all the malice of material he set the Rune of Ages upon, it every former wearer. would shatter as the last blow was struck. Alaric was horrified by what he had Stone, iron, gromril, dragon scales – all created, but he knew that the crown could proved too weak to contain the mighty not be destroyed. Thus, he resolved to hide energies of his new Master Rune. He set it away. He traveled to the Great Forest out upon a great quest to find a substance and the wind-swept Howling Hills and strong enough to bear the rune’s awesome descended into the depths of a worked-out 2 THE NEMESIS CROWN Crown Dwarf mine from the times before the War rescue force led by Thane Grombold of the of the Beard. There, he sought a place in famous Krud clan came in search of the which to hide the crown for eternity. Alaric lost miners. During the chaos that hewed a chamber from the living rock, followed, a black-hearted Night Goblin placed the crown within, and sealed the came upon the crown by chance, chamber with the most potent of slaughtered his fellows, and fled with it warding runes. into the forest. Now, armies muster to retrieve the Evil Reawakened crown, for wild rumors of its powers have The crown lay hidden for many long spread far and wide. The Dwarfs seek to centuries. The chamber remained intact, return it to their holds where Alaric’s even as the mine entrance eventually madness can be hidden for all time. collapsed upon itself. Then, a mighty Grimgor thinks that, should he gain it, the earthquake shook the Howling Hills and strongest warriors in the land will come brought tales of fresh gromril seams and to fight him.