Quetza, also known as "the Defiled," is an abandoned Lizardmen temple-city that served as a powerbase for the Skaven of Clan Pestilens during their sojourn in Lustria.[2a]
History[]
Origins[]
The Lizardmen temple-city of Quetza survived the Great Catastrophe, but was abandoned for unknown reasons at some point before the coming of Clan Pestilens.[2a] According to some, its inhabitants finally fell victim to Daemonic incursions, others suggest they died due to plagues caused by packing themselves into smaller, more defensible sections of the city, and still others say the great temple-city was brought low by both Daemon and infestation (whilst noting that the two are not mutually exclusive).[4a]
In -1399 IC, the Skaven of Clan Pestilens occupied the ruined city undetected. An ill omen was recorded in the alignment of the stars, although its meaning was not revealed to the Slann for centuries.[3a] Somehow, the Skaven had penetrated the sprawling network of caverns beneath the city, caves resplendent with forests of majestic gleaming stalagmites and stalactites amongst which the city's Slann mage-priests would contemplate the nature of the universe. How the vile ratmen gained entrance to Quetza's caverns remains a great mystery to the mage-priests, but it seems most likely, however implausible, that they dug their way up from tunnels even deeper below the earth.[2a]
Scattered and inconsistent tales shared between the Plaguelords of Clan Pestilens suggest that when the final remaining ratmen lurched back into the caverns to regroup, they instead encountered a horror in the depths beneath Quetza. Inside a previously undiscovered, filth-ridden throne chamber rested a corpulent Daemon named Uthl'kritchnaak, an Exalted Herald of Nurgle, marked with the same weeping sores, foul stench, and bulbous lesions that mutilated their own bodies. It is said that the leader of these ratmen, desperate to save their vile hides, promised what remained of his clan to the Daemon and its master, who they proclaimed as the Horned One, and embraced the plagues that had so thoroughly decimated him and his kinsmen.[4b]
Quetza formed the ratmen's greatest bastion throughout the long war between the Serpent God and the Rat God. During that time it was transformed into a sprawling, stinking warren, strewn with half-gnawed bones, rotting litter and rancid rat filth. Though Quetza was purged of its vile occupiers at the moment of Tehenhauin's victory (in 100 IC[3a]), the city remains empty to this day. It is a place shunned by the Lizardmen, tainted beyond redemption by the diseases of the vile Skaven.[2a]
Although Clan Pestilens had abandoned Quetza, the Skaven tunnels beneath the jungles of Lustria remained intact. Fortunately, these tunnels were now infested with snakes, the servants of Sotek who protect his people against the Skaven menace. The Lizardmen believe that as long as Sotek remains lurking in the tunnels beneath Lustria, then the Skaven cannot return, so every effort is made to placate Sotek with his deserved tribute of sacrifices.[1a]
Nevertheless, in 2489 IC the Skaven returned, and the astromancer Tetto'eko stemmed a major invasion by redirecting a comet to crash down upon the Skaven stronghold in Quetza.[3a]
Recent History[]
Quetza at present
All that remains of Quetza is a rocky crater so barren that even the teeming jungle that surrounds it refuses to encroach upon its borders. Not a single building was left intact by the impact of Tetto'eko's comet, only skeletal remnants of twisted metal and melted rock. The warrens beneath are mostly collapsed, save for a few broken tunnels and fragile chambers amid the debris and fallen rock. Yet treasures still lie deep within the caverns, left behind by the Skaven fleeing in haste -- first from the serpent hordes of Tehenhuain and more recently from the comet of Tetto’eko -- and they are treasures Clan Pestilens desires greatly to reclaim.[4c]
To this end, an expedition has been sent from Skavenblight in 2512 IC to regain a foothold on Lustria and then repopulate the empty under-warrens beneath the ruins of Quetza. Led by Lord Skrolk, one of Clan Pestilens' mightiest Plaguelords, this expedition has already breached the deepest caverns beneath Quetza and begun exploring and repairing its collapsed warrens.[4c]
Skrolk and his rat-kin gnawed their way through the dark, rotted tunnels, but the work of repairing the underwarrens has just begun. It is slow and tedious labour, but the Skaven of Clan Pestilens are nothing if not tenacious. Inch by rotten inch they clear rancid debris to reinforce the tunnels and chambers, vowing to restore their nesthome beneath Quetza if it takes all the time that is left in the world.[4c]
Geography[]
Any mortals brave or foolish enough to travel to the ruins of Quetza feel immediately ill at ease, as if there is some unknown confluence of powers here that are constantly at odds with one another. Wizards in particular feel their pulses quicken and may notice the hairs on their forearms and necks stand on end, as if the entire crater above ground and the Skaven warrens beneath exist within a torrential nexus of pure, untapped, roiling magical energy pouring in from all directions, and which could destabilise without warning. Yet the dark tunnels have an undeniable allure, for surely hidden within the depths beneath the ruins of the Defiled City lie ancient artefacts designed to tap into the maelstrom of power above.[4c]
The Crater[]
The site of the once-great temple-city of Quetza is best approached from the south, after navigating the River Qurveza until its shrinking tributaries force a turn north through the jungle. An approach from the north requires a journey through the foetid Mosquito Swamps, east of Quetza lie the terrifying Blood Swamps, and the nearly impassable Spine of Sotek mountain range towers over the west. The crater itself is visible for miles from the top of the jungle canopy, but trekking even dozens of miles through the labyrinthine jungle is an arduous task in the best of times. In less fortunate conditions, such a journey has claimed the life of many an adventurer.[4c]
Upon reaching the crater, the devastation wrought by the comet is immediately apparent: the verdant jungle ends where the basin begins, as if some force prevented further encroachment. The crater is ringed by the skeletal remains of alien-appearing architecture; where once stood elegant stelae, sprawling barrios, and sturdy pyramids, now only deformed doorways, blasted glass, and melted rock remain.[4c]
Inside one of the nearly-destroyed buildings, in an outlying alcove that may once have served as a shrine of some type, is a rectangular hole leading into darkness below. Its shape implies that it was carved from the rock specifically for the purpose of accessing the tunnels beneath, but by whom or for what purpose is lost to the mists of time. The entrance through the floor leads down into a small tunnel, which after multiple bends, twists, and turns empties through the partially collapsed roof of the Chamber of Edification.[4c]
Collapsed Vestibule[]
In the southern quadrant of the crater, inside one of the inner blast rings, is a second entrance into the subterranean Skaven warrens beneath Quetza. Here, a portion of the rocky basin floor has collapsed, revealing a large vestibule 20 to 30 feet beneath the surface, in the rough shape of a triangle. It has been carved out from the bedrock, with its apex pointing directly south.[4d]
The part of the floor that remains visible under large clumps of fallen ceiling stone and dirt is made up of dried mud pockmarked by scratches and claw marks and thin, shallow ruts. No vegetation can be seen, even among the many shadows. At the very periphery of vision sudden movement can sometimes be detected, but any attempt to locate the source of motion is futile. Opposite the apex at the base of the triangle, there stands, partially obscured by fallen rock, the remains of a doorway that opens to a corridor leading down into darkness. What can be seen of the tunnel floor seems oddly unnatural, as if the floor itself shifts subtly in shadows. Closer inspection reveals that it is filled with writhing serpents.[4d]
This vestibule acted as the entrance to the warren of Clan Pestilens, and their most important connection to the outside world. It originally opened into one of the dark, rarely traversed alleyways of Quetza, allowing Skaven to emerge into the overworld and descend below unseen. As the closest of the main rooms to the surface, its thick roof of rock, once thought impenetrable by the clan's Plaguelords, was the most vulnerable to the impact of the comet and has now collapsed.[4d]
Chamber of Inquiry[]
The Chamner of Inquiry of Questxa was repurposed by Clan Pestilens into a laboratory. Even after the destruction of the temple-city and its abandonment by the Skaven, it holds numerous samples of experimental plagues and research notes. The entrance tunnel leads down away from the vestibule and terminates in a forked, V-shaped corridor. The left passage winds for a time before opening into the Chamber of Inquiry of Clan Pestilens, also known as the "Plague Laboratory." The room itself is oddly circular in shape, with no corners or sharp angles.[4d]
Here the Pestilens Plaguelords and their students combined scrapings and collections of pus from disease-ridden victims to create new, more transmissible, and more lethal maladies to release upon the overworld. Phials filled with viscous fluids still rest upon rotting wooden tables, cabinets, and shelves, though most of the liquids in the many beakers and flasks dried up ages before. On the floor lie shards of broken glass embedded in sticky pools of dark slime, aged parchment filled with Queekish scrawl, and scattered straw and coprolitic scat.[4d]
Chamber of Edification[]
The passage to the right is partially collapsed, and following its winding corridor requires careful scrambling over some very large fallen rocks. Well-equipped individuals may need to remove pieces of armour or large packs to squeeze through a few tight spaces.[4e]
Eventually the passage opens into another roughly circular chamber, whose narrow corridor spirals in upon itself before terminating in a central study room. Along the increasingly curved walls are carved alcoves replete with row upon row of books and scrolls written in the Skaven tongue of Queekish. Strewn about the floor are variously-sized pieces of decrepit parchment and vellum, scribbled upon which are diagrams, notes, and hastily scrawled pictograms. None of these papers appears to have been touched in decades.[4e]
The Chamber of Edification was repurposed by Clan Pestilens into a library. It contains volumes of the Liber Bubonicus, as well as treatises on diseases now lost in the Old World and the notes of now-deceased Plaguelords.[4e]
Most of the books and scrolls are written in Queekish. Noteworthy items include all three volumes of the Liber Bubonicus, an encyclopaedia of plague, alone on their topmost shelf in a place of honour. Long forgotten in a small corner, stuffed in between other, unremarkable tomes, are the note-scrawlings of the mad Skritt Blightmaster, who was said to have uncovered a sickness so deadly that it brought the entire clan near the brink of extinction. Research into this "Skritt Pox" was abandoned only after he contracted it himself, and died.[4e]
A scant few texts bear titles inscribed in a variety of Old Worlder languages, comprising the following:[4e]
- On the Varieties of Execrable Ailments by Wikerus Blatter - A veritable encyclopaedia of infectious diseases containing mostly wrong and certainly outdated information. Scattered throughout the entries are stains of various sizes and colours, containing actual samples of bodily fluids from victims of the described diseases -- some may still be contagious to the unknowing reader. It may fetch up to a gold crown or two from a collector as a curious footnote in medical history.[4e]
- Of Plagues and Peril by Meffridus Schreiber - A history of multiple waves of various plagues from the time of Sigmar to the year 1114 IC, when the author died of the Black Death. Legendary within scholarly circles for its first-hand accounts and tantalisingly cited by multiple ancient authors, Of Plagues and Peril is thought to have been lost for hundreds of years. To the right buyer, this book is nearly priceless.[4e]
- Infestations by an unknown author - This infamous tome is sought after by two main groups: Chaos Cultists who prize the information within for its forbidden knowledge of maladies and afflictions, and witch hunters who would see every copy reduced to ash. This specimen is bound in the hide of an unknown animal, though rumours persist that animal is Human. Touching or reading this book can cause Chaos corruption. [4e]
Corrupted Spawning Pools[]
Taking the branched passage from the Chamber of Inquiry instead of following the main tunnel leads to a triangular chamber with a floor of rock and mud, littered with deformed bones and decaying flesh. The hot, clinging air of this chamber is close and rancid. Its most prominent feature is a stagnant, foetid pool that pulses irregularly with a faint and sickly green light from deep within.[4e]
The pool used to spawn the strong Saurus warriors of the Lizardmen, but it was corrupted by the workings of Clan Pestilens and now intermittently vomits forth deformed monstrosities with only the vaguest reptilian features. These creatures lumber about aimlessly for a time, and most die after a mercifully brief existence wracked with pain. Only a few make it out of the cavernous depths to the crater's perimeter, to be dispatched by wary Skink patrols.[4e]
Altar to the Horned One[]
Tunnels leading out of both the Chamber of Inquiry and the Chamber of Edification branch out into side passages leading away to collapsed ruins, but following the main throughway leads to this room, comprising another large, roughly circular shape. The floor is cut away in concentric, descending circles of increasingly smaller diameter, leading to a stone altar in the very centre of the chamber. The altar stands three feet high, topped by a bulbous, corpulent form whose most prominent features are the twin horns protruding from its forehead.[4g]
The walls enclosing the room are smooth, and marked only by dark, malodorous fluids that continuously seep down from the ceiling, along the floor and down the concentric circles, finally to disappear beneath the altar. The only interruptions to the gentle curving of the walls are the two openings leading into the chamber and a single aperture leading due south. Foul air, like hot breath, emanates from the dark passage, though the placement of any light brighter than a torch near the opening is rewarded with a brief glint of gold from deeper within.[4g]
Throne Chamber[]
This chamber is the former prison of Uthl'kritchnaak, the Exalted Herald of Nurgle who first taught the Skaven of Clan Pestilens of the powers of decay and disease.[4g]
The passageway from the altar room leads directly into this chamber. The air is hot and rank and seems to thrum and crackle with unseen energy, and the odour is so foul that stepping inside is enough to cause vomiting. The chamber itself is roughly circular, though smaller than the altar room. The walls here are carved with strange, greenish symbols that seem to shift at the edges of vision but remain motionless when directly viewed. The floor is obscured by mounds of grime and filth that seem to intermittently breathe, shift, and flow of their own accord, as if alive.[4g]
In the centre of the chamber, seated, but whose corpulent flesh seemingly engulfs whatever it is that supports it, is a misshapen Daemon, its flesh riven with scabs, boils, and buboes weeping purulence and ichor. Twisted, branching horns protrude from its head, one of which is adorned with a cracked brass bell. Blistered, webbed hands with interwoven claws rest atop its belly. Its eyes are matted shut with a dried yellow crust. Its torso terminates in a thick, gangrenous tail. What appears to be moonlight pours in from six holes in the ceiling, each beam striking the creature and bathing it in a silver light. It does not move.[4g]
The floor beneath the creature is littered with sacrificial offerings left by Clan Pestilens, consisting mostly of bones and scattered items deemed valuable. Among them, partially buried amid the filth and grime, is the source of the glint seen from the altar room: a large, golden bracer with an ornately carved design in the Lizardmen style. Only four yards from the entrance to the Throne Chamber, the bracer seems tantalisingly within reach.[4g]