He has little trouble convincing the crew of his good intentions and he is welcomed by the adventurers. He is shocked when he learns that Abel, who now goes by the name Abelhelm von Reichert is the owner of castle Grissenwald, on top of Black Peak. But he's even more in shock as the next day, they are joined at the breakfast table by none other than Emperor Karl Franz himself!
After discussing their plans they quickly set about learning more about the fabled Karak Zaigon. Thanks to a number of books from Gotrak, they have a starting point. Each sets himself to the task of studying the dwarf volumes. They learn that Sigmar went to this place in his self imposed exile. They also learn that the hold has fallen a long time ago to Orcs of Clan Blackvenom. However, they learn little elso of import. And so they decide to pay a visit to their neighbours.
The Cheese festival at Kazak Slumbol
They ask a meeting with Gorim Greathammer, the king of clan Slumbol. But before they do, Vasili makes an unfortunate remark to Gotrak about sex with Woodelfs. The crazy Trollslayer promptly squeezes the Knight's throat, nearly killing him. A heated discussion follows and when everyone calms down, they are allowed to meet the king. He offers them fine cheeses and some good advice. And the use of the Dwarf library. They also secure a more favourable trade relation with the town of Grissenwald. With what the king told them, and the bits and pieces they puzzle together, the heroes reconstruct the legend of Zaigon.
Legend of the Librarians of Zaigon
In the dark days of yonder Chaos roamed the Old World. Only the dwarven kingdomes remained free of warped and twisted madness.
The territories of man were a fighting pit and dwarves in these days used them to grow of age while adventuring and fighting Chaos. After this they would return to the kingdoms and live there, performing crafts, defending the mountains against the hordes doing otherwise dwarfish things. Only some would not return, vowing during those adventures to learn all they could on how to stop chaos. They made their grudges against daemons and recorded their weaknesses. And so, the Librarians were born.
One of these was Grishnak the Honourless. He was born with a strange disfigurment: bald and beardless and hence he was exiled and told to go to the Chaos wastes and not return and die there. He found no love from family and clan and so wandered the human lands alone and in despair.
After years of fighting daemons he was ready to lay down his final axe swing when he found a small boy left alone in a Tzeentch infested dungeon. He saw himself in this kid. Alone and left for dead. He swore to defend the human boy against the powers of chaos. Enlightened, Grishnak left for the World's edge mountains and founded there a bastion hold that would accept and defend men and dwarfs. This Karak was later named Zaigon, the uniting hold that brought dwarf and man closer together than ever before. The humans were led by the boy he had saved: Erhard Unberogen, father of Bjorn, father of Sigmar.
The Emperors Lie
Determined to get to the truth of the matter they confront Karl Franz. He reluctantly tells tham that the Gal Maraz he holds is a replica. Sigmar took the original with him when he went on his Last Pilgrimage. The Grand Theogonists at the time thought it prudent to have the emperor wield such a strong symbol of hope and so decided on the lie. Every emperor since has been using the fake hammer, which would be blessed by priests or enchanted by wizards before battle to simulate its holy powers.
Sadly, when the enemies of the empire know about this, they could use this knowledge to severely undermine the Empires cohesion.
Karl Franz implores the heroes to find the real hammer and return it to him. Seeing this as a holy quest, and wanting to look for Zaigon in the first place, the heroes agree. They prepare for a long journey to Black Fire Pass and the Border Princes, the only logical location where both the lost hold, and the lost hammer could be found. They only think with some trepidation at what they will find there as they know that a powerful Nurgle daemon holds sway over an Orc clan there...
And so the heroes set sail to Nuln.