In Nagash's absence, the skaven had been poised to claim swathes of the surface world, and the Horned Rat was pleased. Deep they tunnelled under the Worlds Edge Mountains, establishing many lair-nests.

Without his great will, Nagash's legions were no more than bones in the desert. The skaven scurried to collect the pieces of Nagash, taking them to the warpforges to destroy them. Yet it was over - the most powerful necromancer the world had ever known was stopped. It was so potent that two of the Lords of Decay dropped dead, blood spraying from their eyes and ears. Far away in Skavenblight the Council of Thirteen was struck with the arcane feedback of that spell. Even in defeat, the Great Necromancer had lashed out at his foe. Finally, a last Council member sent spies via secret tunnels to deliver the Fellblade into the hands of an unwitting pawn. And so it went, with each member contributing to the task at hand. Unsure if their weapons could harm a being of such stature, one of the Council suggested a blade of purest warpstone be forged, and he oversaw that work. For the first time, the Council of Thirteen voted unanimously - they had to stop Nagash. Before that host, the living would be snuffed out like a candle's flame in a black whirlwind. Millions of restless dead strode relentlessly towards Nagashizzar in perhaps the mightiest army the world had ever seen. Far to the south an innumerable legion of undead was flowing north, like a river of bone. Through their scrying orb, the skaven saw what they feared. The Council of Thirteen hastily convened, for Nagash's Great Ritual was underway. Storm clouds of energy revealed a spell that would reshape the world itself. However, it soon became obvious that powerful magic was at work. The Council agreed, but also redoubled their number of spies, as they were intrigued about what their foe was plotting. He offered more warpstone if the skaven would lure Greenskin tribes into the Cursed Pit. Nagash soon set rotting emissaries to the Council of Thirteen. This compromise at least offered some return. In truth, the Council desired all of the warpstone, yet even their reserves were finite. After much deliberation, the Council agreed and claw-marked the pact.

In return for peace, the Great Necromancer would supply the skaven with warpstone mined below Cripple Peak. In the end, Nagash offered an unholy pact with the Council of Thirteen. For his part, the Great Necromancer could find no way to drive off the skaven that infested the tunnels under the mountain, and so was unable to bring his own dark plans to fruition. The Council of Thirteen craved the limitless power offered by the warpstone, but no matter how many warriors they ordered into the conflict, they could not break the stalemate. The war stretched into years, then into decades. An endless battle of attrition began, with the skaven pitting their vast numbers against a foe that could never be slain. So it was that the skaven made war, bursting into the lower mines of Nagashizzar, or the Cursed Pit as the ratmen came to know it.

He had turned the mountain into an Undead stronghold, and his shambling minions mined deep underground, extracting the Warpstone for some fell purpose of the necromancer. Cripple Peak was the domain of the father of Necromancers - the great Nagash. The Skaven, however, were not the first to lay claim to it. It was then and remains to this day, the largest deposit of that coveted substance yet found. The nascent race of skaven had only recently discovered a huge warpstone meteor interred in the sundered mountain called Cripple Peak. Verminking's tale began long ago, in a different age of the world.

Call of warhammer skaven