The sentient Dwarf submersible known as the Black Kraken
The Black Kraken, the Dwarf Engineer Tordrek Hackhart's ingenious creation, really captures the spirit of a terrifying sea creature -- if anyone could build such a metallic behemoth, then it would be a crazed Chaos Dwarf engineer. The articulated tentacles lend a sense of the sinister to what is already an esoteric submersible. Its twin paddles are visible, safely ensconced within the "abdomen."[1a]
Hackhart's ship is a technological wonder made possible only by the darkest and most eldritch sciences. It has but one crewman, Tordrek Hackhart himself. The once-proud Dwarf is no longer mortal, for the Ruinous Powers took him many moons ago.[2a]
The ship has its own defences, however, for the Black Kraken itself is alive; possessed of an unholy sentience that feeds upon acts of wanton destruction. What Daemonic bargains Captain Hackhart made in order to bestow his ship with a malign intelligence will never be known, but their efficacy is without doubt -- the metal tentacles that sprout from the craft's prow are capable of plucking enemy crew from their decks or crushing a war galleon to splinters in an agonisingly powerful embrace.[2a]
Those few mariners who have seen the Black Kraken in action and survived have told of cannon batteries ranged along the craft's metallic bulk that are capable of firing torpedoes and explosive mines as well as conventional shot. None truly know of Tordrek's secret weapon, however, for he reserves its use for those times when he has successfully located and attacked one of Barak Varr's fleet. He calls it the Kraken's Bite; a great diamond-tipped drill that extrudes from within the warship's nest of tentacles, designed to chew through the armoured hulls of Dwarf fortress-ships. One ship in particular...the Grimnir's Thunder. [2a]
Miniatures[]
