Warchief Khudhrak of the Dûnglamor

When Khudhrak was just a whelp he showed great potential for war and combat, his masters called him tough maggot until he was strong enough to batter anyone who dared to call him a name, he was quickly put in command of a legion of orcish rabble, this legion was integral to taking Mount Gundabad from the Dwarvish scum which had peacefully lived there for thousands of years, during the wars to take Mount Gundabad Khudhrak became battle hardened and was given promotion after promotion, and more responsibilities of the orcish hordes which much needed a strict leader to curb their rowdiness, the dwarves were not expecting such smart and devious tactics from mindless beasts like the orcs and so were caught out by Khudhraks plans and moves, swiftly and savagely Khudhrak and his scourge of orcs swept over the mountains slaughtering dwarves in the thousands, such talent quickly reached the great Sauron and Khudhrak was praised for his skill and intelligence, and heightened to one of the great chieftains of Gundabad.

It was a freezing night, the foul orcish guards atop the gates of Mount Gundabad shivered as they stood watch over the valley ahead, the crystal white snow was overwhelming the ground of the mountains as it always did, there was never any sunshine in this part of the world, for Mount Gundabad was a place of evil and darkness.

“What’s that then?” an orc guard muttered while trying to savour the limited heat from the brazier.

“You what? There’s nothing there, are you blind or sommet?” the other guard spoke while staring off into the distance.

“No you idiot! Look!” The orc shouted foully, his decrepit fingers fumbled while picking up his crude bow.

The guards both cocked an arrow and drew their bows, out of the blizzard a man emerged, he wore black and red, the colours of the Haradhrim to the south, accompanying him were two other Southrons and they were holding frosted chains, you could tell they were being defeated by the cold of the mountains, attached to the chains were five frozen prisoners sniffling and blue faced.

“Who goes there?!” one of the guards shouted down from the gatehouse.

“I am Atallah of Harad! These are my guards, and these are my prisoners, I have travelled up here to ask for assistance in the war which has been declared against us by Numenor, but on my way to your mighty stronghold we came across these free peoples” Atallah explained quickly, clearly wanting to escape the frost of the north.

“Out of my way scum!” a booming voice came from inside the mountain.

The orc guards shuddered and knelt as a great Uruk came walking into the gatehouse, he was huge, he wore armour which covered him from head to toe, it was a dark black colour which gave him a terrifying presence however on his head he wore a shining silver helmet, perhaps this was a crown of the Dwarves which use to dwell here, in his hand he held a great cleaver, dripping from it was blood, potentially the blood of past prisoners or of sacrifices to a god which had been gathering followers up in the North.

“Atallah… I was told of your journey to the North, but I did not think you so smart as to bring me sacrifices, enter our great mountain, you are welcome to stay…” his voice was stern and commanding.

The visitors entered cautiously into the great gates of Gundabad, as Atallah entered with his prisoners they instantly felt the effect of the heat from the braziers, this offered much comfort contrasted to the harshness of the outside, the walls of the entry hall were dark but they were well made, after all this was originally a Dwarven city of great standards.

The great Uruk warchief stepped into the room and even without seeing him, the others felt his dark presence, at close range he was even more vast, he was around the size of a Baugor berserker, and they are enormous, closer up you could tell that his armour was the style that Black Uruk Warchiefs would wear but it was slightly more armoured.

“I am Warchief Khudhrak of the Dunglamhoth, follow me Atallah and bring your sheep to their slaughter” Khudhraks voice was firm.

The gates slowly pulled open and they all stepped into the giant mountain city, bonfires were lit up all around to keep the inside light enough to work in, there were broken towers from the Dwarf days dotted around on cliff sides but it seemed they made good defensive points as archers were stationed in them, it was like they had managed to hollow out the entire mountain, there was no other place like this in the whole of Middle Earth, although it was horrifying, it was grand and you had to respect the craftsmanship of the Dwarves and Orcs who had built this, built around the cliffsides were small wooden platforms to help getting around, they didn’t look very stable however they were used anyway.

Ahead was a grand bridge, the start and end of it were obviously built by the Dwarves, but the centre had been rebuilt by the orcs, upon it were skulls and large torches, if you looked closely you could see dried blood on the rotting wood, past this was a great tunnel leading further into the mountain… further into darkness.

They walked for what seemed like days but in truth it had only been around thirty minutes, they reached passage which was illuminated by a terrifying orange light, as they descended down this pathway the prisoners knew this was it, this would be where they were ‘sacrificed’, when they entered the prisoners and even the Southrons looked horrified, there was a giant statue straight ahead, it was a balrog from its mouth poured lava and it fell down into this huge endless pit below, in the balrogs hands was an altar, it was stained red from all the past sacrifices, scattered around the room there were bones and organs from past victims.

Khudhrak stomped on the floor in a rage, “ARGH! I forgot the ceremonial blade of the Blood God! Atallah, keep these prisoners here while I go get the damn thing!” Khudhrak stormed off back up the passage.

The prisoners saw their chance, one of the prisoners was a brave dwarf, he knelt down and picked up an old bone from the bloody floor, sneaking up behind one of the Haradhrim another prisoner caught sight of this and instantly knew his plan, he too picked up a bone from the floor, with all their might they struck the Southrons over the head, there was a giant clang of bone on their steel helmets, they both dropped to the floor, covering their faces in blood.

Atallah turned around to see what had happened, he drew his grand sword, it glittered from the light, true silver… “Stay back or I’ll cut you all up right now!” Atallah shouted panicking.

“What’re gonna do laddy, there’s five of us and one of you, this is the last damn time Ezulik of the Blue Mountains gets taken prisoner by the likes of you” Ezulik spoke with bravery.

While Atallah’s focus was set on Ezulik one of the other prisoners lunged forward, Atallah turned and sliced his stomach open with extreme ease, but it was too late, Ezuliks bone crashed against Atallahs head, Atallah dropped to the floor like the others before him.

After Ezulik had taken the keys from the downed Haradhrim, he had to find a weapon, from the ground he picked up an old Dwarvish Warhammer, it had ancient writing on it and seemed to be trimmed with Mithril.

“Come on lads! Let’s get out of here!” Ezulik shouted.

They all ran swiftly but silently down the narrow passages of Mount Gundabad, Ezulik would crack the odd orcs head open if one got in their way, the hammer he was using truly suited his style, he was unstoppable with it, as they went on they heard booming drums, the orcs knew of their escape, the shouting of orcs and goblins echoed throughout the halls, Ezulik caught sight of the bridge leading out of Mount Gundabad and ran for it.

“Vrapog poshat!” these words bellowed throughout the whole of the city, as this meant ‘Run them down’ it was Khudhrak who screamed it, he was standing above the tunnel atop a tower, the howling of wargs were heard, and clattering out of the tunnel came a group of five warg riders, luckily Ezulik and the others had already passed the first gate, and Ezulik quickly slammed down the lever to close it, just as the wargs were about to reach them and rip their bodies apart, the gate crashed shut, and the prisoners ran out into the icey waste of Mount Gundabad.

Ezulik kept that hammer, and never went anywhere without it, for when he needed a weapon the most, it was there.

Atallah was thrown out into the cold for being taken down by his own prisoners, but surprisingly Khudhrak let him keep his prized mithril sword. The darkness of Mount Gundabad contrasted harshly with the bright orange flames which engulfed the lower levels on which the altar to the blood god resided, the mountain cave was raging with noise, more noise than normal as the dwarves of all Middle Earth had just declared all out war with Dunglamhoth, the orcs were preparing weapons and armour wildly, they were ready to spill blood and feast on the corpses of dwarves, elves and men alike.

All were raging about apart from the 'Gods of the Mountain' as the lower goblin scum called them, these three were Khudhrak, Ugrug and Yagush, all fierce and all to be feared, and they were, after years of battle here orcs had come to be some of the most feared beings in Middle Earth, almost rivalling Saurons malice and infamy.

"Are you sure about this Warchief?" Yagush asked hesitantly while looking at Khudhraks shadowy figure.

"I am not one to joke around Yagush, I have been waiting for this moment since the fall of Melkor, the blood god is the only thing I praise to, what kind of a servant would I be if I were not ready to sacrifice myself onto this great flame of his, I must do this to ascend to the next plane of existence, I must release myself from these mortal bonds" Khudhrak explained to Yagush seriously, the blood god had always had a grand presence in Mount Gundabad but the Warchief sacrificing himself was something no one had heard of before.

"What if it doesn't work Khudhrak?" Ugrug turned to Khudhrak and asked.

"Then you continue to crush the free people's and go on without me, for if this doesn't work, nothing mattered to me anyway, I was never worthy  to lead Dunglamhoth if this does not succeed, I will see you soon scum" Khudhrak finished his words and stepped forward into the great flames of the Blood God which were being kept in the lowest chamber of Mount Gundabad.

He walked through the fire until his figure disappeared, he did not scream, one must also notice he walked into the flames with his famous black armour on him, great colours of flame soon burst out of the fires, Yagush and Ugrug watched in amazement as the fire erupted.

The fire started to die down, and from the two pillars on each side of the pit two beams of pure flame were holding Khudhrak aloft in he air, his body was burnt, his armour was somehow turned red by these flames, like they had been stained in the blood which had been sacrificed in this flame many times, Khudhrak looked up towards Ugrug and Yagush, his eyes were a burning orange, he had cracks running down his body which were glowing in a yellow and orange, around his finger appeared a ring of flames which had not been there before.

Khudhrak was dropped by the flames onto his knees, an aura of blood surrounded him, the ritual had somehow worked, the blood god had answered his calls, he stood up and looked forward to the other Chiefs.

"Come maggots, there is a war to finish" Khudhrak spoke as they all walked back up into the higher halls of Mount Gundabad.

With this ritual Khudhrak is far more powerful than he once was, now harnessing power of the blood god, he is truly a force of pure evil, his very body has an aura of blood and death, the ring of flames around his finger allows the blood god to channel his power into Khudhrak, giving the user extreme strength, with Khudhraks armour turned blood red, he looks like one of the Blood Gods demons, a truly terrifying sight.

The Orcs of Dunglamhoth have this weapon now in their arsenal and they are ready to unleash it on Middle Earth, for evil and for their benefit.