Foul Play Read online

  Then the orcs fed the ball to their speedy gobbo, and he dodged a slayer’s tackle and sped into the end zone, scoring a second touchdown. Sulk blew the final whistle – the Gouged Eye had won! The orcs on the field let out a celebratory ‘Waaagh!’, which was echoed by the fans in their half of the stadium. Gouged Eye balloons bounced around and goblin fans were thrown onto the field. The loons joyously laughed, even as they landed with a splat.

  The ogres would be happy and Altdorf’s Eyes had no hold on him. Sulk hoped he was in the clear, although he would need to avoid dwarfs for a while.

  Sulk entered the refs’ locker room. He was desperate to get out of the bloody kit, although at least it wasn’t his blood for the most part. He walked to his locker.

  ‘Pleased with yourself?’ said the chamberlain. He emerged from the shadows just as he had done in the crypt, his long face stern, but the flaring of his nostrils revealed rage. ‘I had high hopes for you, Gulden.’ The chamberlain closed the locker door. ‘I should have you killed right now, have my Eyes swoop in and slice your throat. But no, a more efficient message needs to be sent. I can’t have my other informants betraying me, can I?’

  ‘Do your worst!’ said Sulk, managing to sound far braver than he actually felt.

  ‘You don’t want my worst, Gulden. Believe me, my worst is reserved for enemies with far more potency than a petty thug and thief! No, I’ll let the Kobassi Brothers deal with you.’

  ‘You have no evidence – it got chewed up with Hinter.’

  ‘I admired your little deception back there on the field, but you are so, so naive. How hard do you think it would be for me to manufacture more evidence? Or, maybe I shall just take Janet. The Marauders are still looking for their mascot.’

  ‘You’ll stay away from her,’ whispered Sulk. ‘If you want my services.’

  ‘Why do I need a low-level thug?’

  ‘I’m no longer low-level. I’m now the Kobassi Brothers’ most trusted man,’ stated Sulk. ‘Their wager is won, and they’re now more powerful than ever because of me! I’ll be even closer than before.’

  The chamberlain thought about this, and did not disagree.

  ‘And if you want my cooperation, if you want to know what I know, then you’ll leave me and my charges alone.’

  ‘Or I could have my agents steal the goat and make you work for me anyway?’ said the chamberlain.

  ‘As you said, wretched men are easy to control. I am not wretched – not anymore, at any rate. If you want the intelligence, I think it’s best you throw away the stick and keep an eye on my carrots to make sure nobody else ever eats them!’ Sulk gave a threatening look. The chamberlain considered things for a moment then walked backwards, towards the door, withdrawing back into the shadows.

  ‘I look forward to working with you,’ he hissed, before silently leaving the room.

  Sulk slumped on the bench by his locker. He was physically and mentally exhausted and so unprepared for his next visitors.

  The Kobassis entered mere minutes after the chamberlain’s silent departure. They looked to be in a good spirits.

  ‘Dat was a close one, Sulk,’ said one. ‘I like wot yoo did wiv dat deathroller. Could ’ave gone wrong though. We’d be ’avin’ a very different discussion if it had.’

  ‘Speakin’ of which,’ said the other Kobassi, ‘how did it go wiv da chamberlain?’

  Sulk was instantly afraid. He glanced around for an escape route, but the ogres were blocking him. He decided on bravado instead.

  ‘It went well, he’s keen for me to remain in your employ…’ he chanced.

  ‘Good, dat’s good,’ said the first Kobassi. ‘We’ve always valued yer relationship with da Eyes.’

  Sulk wiped sweat from his head with a shaking hand. Thank Nuffle the toilets were close.

  The Kobassis picked up on Sulk’s confusion. ‘How else do you think we feed the chamberlain false information? It keeps hiz cronies away from our real operationz,’ one of them explained.

  ‘We hate grasserz,’ said the other. ‘Unless it suits our purposes.’ With that, the closest Kobassi clapped Sulk a friendly slap on the back. It was the hardest he’d been hit all day. ‘Get yerself cleaned up. We’ll see yer tomorrow.’ The ogres left.

  Sulk washed and changed and walked out the stadium, not caring if he ever set foot on a Blood Bowl field again. He had a suspicion he might have to, but that was a worry for another day. For now he could focus on his true passion. He wasn’t sure what he was going to call it – he toyed with the Reikland Society for the Protection of Clobbered Animals, but he thought that would need shortening somehow. Still, he knew what he had to do next; the Gouged Eye had already threatened to kill the Dwarf Giants’ team mascot. Sulk had to get there first – he had to save a terrier called Rolf!

  About the Author

  Andy Hall is a professional writer with many years in the games industry. After a stint working for Games Workshop’s magazines White Dwarf and Fanatic, he is currently lead writer for the PC strategy game Total War: Warhammer.

  In a fantasy world where violence is a way of life, the number one sport is Blood Bowl - Gridiron where anything goes. Dirk ‘Dunk’ Hoffnung, once a barbarian swordsman, is now a rookie quarterback in the toughest football league you’ve ever seen. Follow his career as he goes from Most Promising Newcomer to MVP!

  A Black Library Publication

  First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

  Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.

  Cover illustration by Wayne England.

  Foul Play © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2017. Foul Play, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, Blood Bowl, Warhammer, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Stormcast Eternals, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.

  All Rights Reserved.

  A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978-1-78572-635-4

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  See Black Library on the internet at

  blacklibrary.com

  Find out more about Games Workshop’s world of Warhammer and the Warhammer 40,000 universe at

  games-workshop.com

  eBook license

  This license is made between:

  Games Workshop Limited t/a Black Library, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, United Kingdom (“Black Library”); and

  (2) the purchaser of an e-book product from Black Library website (“You/you/Your/your”)

  (jointly, “the parties”)

  These are the terms and conditions that apply when you purchase an e-book (“e-book”) from Black Library. The parties agree that in consideration of the fee paid by you, Black Library grants you a license to use the e-book on the following terms:

  * 1. Black Library grants to you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the e-book in the following ways:

  o 1.1 to store the e-book on any number of electronic devices and/or storage media (including, by way of example only, personal computers, e-book readers, mobile phones, portable hard drives, USB flash drives, CDs or DVDs) which are personally owned by you;

  o 1.2 to access the e-book using an appropriate electronic device and/or through any appropriate storage media; and

  * 2. For the avoidance of doubt, you are ONLY licensed to use the e-book as described in paragraph 1 above. You may NOT use or store the e-book in any other way. If you do, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license.

  * 3. Further to the
general restriction at paragraph 2, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license in the event that you use or store the e-book (or any part of it) in any way not expressly licensed. This includes (but is by no means limited to) the following circumstances:

  o 3.1 you provide the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

  o 3.2 you make the e-book available on bit-torrent sites, or are otherwise complicit in ‘seeding’ or sharing the e-book with any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

  o 3.3 you print and distribute hard copies of the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

  o 3.4 you attempt to reverse engineer, bypass, alter, amend, remove or otherwise make any change to any copy protection technology which may be applied to the e-book.

  * 4. By purchasing an e-book, you agree for the purposes of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 that Black Library may commence the service (of provision of the e-book to you) prior to your ordinary cancellation period coming to an end, and that by purchasing an e-book, your cancellation rights shall end immediately upon receipt of the e-book.

  * 5. You acknowledge that all copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights in the e-book are, shall remain, the sole property of Black Library.

  * 6. On termination of this license, howsoever effected, you shall immediately and permanently delete all copies of the e-book from your computers and storage media, and shall destroy all hard copies of the e-book which you have derived from the e-book.

  * 7. Black Library shall be entitled to amend these terms and conditions from time to time by written notice to you.

  * 8. These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law, and shall be subject only to the jurisdiction of the Courts in England and Wales.

  * 9. If any part of this license is illegal, or becomes illegal as a result of any change in the law, then that part shall be deleted, and replaced with wording that is as close to the original meaning as possible without being illegal.

  * 10. Any failure by Black Library to exercise its rights under this license for whatever reason shall not be in any way deemed to be a waiver of its rights, and in particular, Black Library reserves the right at all times to terminate this license in the event that you breach clause 2 or clause 3.