You can say anything bad abut the Gold Order and you're not going to be wrong. They are arrogant and annoying, obtuse and secretive, sometimes treacherous other times magnanimous, deadly to their enemies and great friends to have. Because they are rich. An entire magic order with more money than common sense, as proven by the dead guy who summoned a daemon earlier.

Imagine you lived in our current world, and your superpower was manipulating the digital to create bitcoins at will. Although magical gold is forbidden for buying goods and services, the Gold Order has mastery over a lot more metals than mere gold. Plus, Imperial Law is only enforced inside the Empire borders. A clever Gold Wizard can always buy things with magic gold from distant lands: such as Estalia, Tilea or even Araby.

And while magical gold will revert itself to lead after a while, the Gold Order is still very rich. So rich they can hire thousands of mercenaries from Kislev and Tilea to fight for them, and they can also repair and improve the weapons and armor of said mercenaries with enchantments and various transmutation feats.

Which is quite nice for me, as the various Regiments of Renown descend into the Skaven caverns and help me clear out the enemy. And then loot the corpses. This is not so great, as bits of warpstone are always integrated with Skaven equipment and thus are deadly to touch, for mutation and curses and other worse reasons touching the soul of a mundane human. Even mages and wizards are quite in danger from warpstone, which is why the material is forbidden in the Empire of Man.

While dragging a leather sack filled with warpstone bits, I met Baltazar Gelt once more. His new runic axe is dripping with green rat blood.

"Warden...found anything nice down here?" I ask in a pleasant voice.

His golden mask measures me for a long moment. "Hundreds of cannons stolen from Nuln, and thousands of slaves. Enough to begin creating my Army of the South." he answers in a secretive tone.

I smile a bit sad. It is a power play. But it doesn't really matter for the next 50 years. "The Imperial Dragon uses both Light and Gold magic. And these daemons target both of your orders equally." I say with a cryptic voice and fly away.

As I return for the next cleanup a minute later, Gelt is waiting by the pile of warpstones I collected from the rats.

Maybe he got the point?

"Are you suggesting cross-training, Warden of the East?" the Gold Magister wonders while I fill the sack again.

I nod gently. "For now, I suggest you re-train all your Wizards to cast the Battle Spells available at Middelheim. The Winds of Magic can be melded in numerous ways, but Teclis did have a working method to reduce the dangers."

His mask changes color from gold to silver as I fly away loaded with more warpstone to throw into space. I think I made my point now.

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While the tunnels under Nuln go for a thousand miles under the Grey Mountains, the Gold Order and their mercenaries should be sufficient. Plus the future Army of the South and their cannons. The Skaven will keep trying, and the Army of the South will get plenty of battle experience in these tunnels.

As for myself, I have two goals to achieve. One, as suggested by Emma and Janna, is to roam the seas and the ocean to the West for pirates and treasure. The possible loot of this operation would allow me to provide for the next goal. Securing the East by strengthening Kislev.

I can also recruit some mercenaries for my Wild Guard, mostly as combat trainers and other cadres like recruiting, supply and logistics. The Army of the East is too powerful and important to move outside the Empire, plus they are still needed in Sylvania for a decade or three. Pacifying the undead-infested lands is the work of a generation, and we'll probably never find all the caves and hideouts hiding the last undead.

Anyways, it takes another week to clean up the under-city caverns of Nuln, until I can fly to Zhufbar and trade with a famous Runesmith once more.

However the corpse of a Black Dragon and a dozen tons of gromril minerals are sufficient to buy me some rare Dwarf goodwill.

"I only read about Dragons until I met you, Warden. But now I can work with Dragon scales and bones! I am certain I will create marvelous items from them!" the Runesmith proclaims in an ecstatic voice.

So I drop my mangled club on the ground with a loud clang. His face changes a dozen colors at the sight, then he eyes the battered Dragon corpse. "Perhaps using a Dragon bone into the alloy will increase the durability of weapon..." he mutters in dismay.

"Perhaps. I do need 1000 Long Rifles with glass optics for my Wild Guard. And a set of runic light armor for them as well. Enough bullets to fight a dozen Beastmen Warherds, and some Dwarf volunteers if any want to join. I hear Kislev is filled with all kind of monsters." I speak very softly. My big stick is mangled but present too.

The Runesmith glances at his fellow Dwarves in his group. "You mean Slayers..." he says in a doubtful tone. His bodyguards grunt with stern faces.

"We leave in a year, as I still need to clean up the last Vampires in Sylvania and open a trade route through the mountains." I explain in a polite voice.

Although managing the Sylvanian castles won't take more than a month, I do need to find and loot a lot of pirates. One year of pirate raiding should be enough to fill my treasury.

"The guns will be ready by next year, Warden of the East. And I'll pay for the silver bullets myself" The Runesmith offers with a sad voice.

The Dawi must have begun mass-producing my steel rifles then, if my royalties have reached 100000 silver.

I take out the schematics for a steam train, modified to include oil-sprinklers for extra heat in the steam chamber, plus conical wheels to keep the train on track and a revolver-cannon for the turret. And I don't mean a multi-barrel cannon like the Dwarves already have, but a rotating chamber like a revolver pistol. "I did consider heat enchantments for the iron breaks, but I left those out for now, since iron is quite cheap. If you produce 10 steam-locomotives in a decade, I will pay 100000 gold for them."

While the Runesmith ponders over the detailed schematics of the train, I fly up and away, reaching my family at Castle Waldenhof in a single minute. Mach 45 speed is quite fast, if I say so myself.

I could reach Cathay or Ind and be back in a single hour. And I will, one day. But not today. My wives must miss me dearly after months of campaign agaisnt the Skaven. Damn those stupid rats!