There's No Such Thing as Skaven

The night was quiet, where just a day before parades and reveling soldiers had filled the streets with a deafening roar. The streets were still littered with colored paper, various trash, and half-empty bottles of liquor. The cleanup would take days, but Nuln had done its part. Over two thousand of its favored sons had marched forth to join the Imperial Legions at Altdorf.
But tonight: quiet. Many-a-peasant rested off the after-effects of cheap booze and poor choices from the night before. Nuln seemed almost at peace.
It would not last. The ground shuddered suddenly. Great shoots of dust and gas rose into the sky all around the city. Chittering rose from the depths of enormous sinkholes as black as pitch that opened in the center of great avenues and under familiar structures. Hundreds died as their homes and shelters tumbled into the dark. Hundreds more died in the seconds later as the mutant rat-men climbed from the depths, armed with rusted steel and hungry eyes. The streets were filled with hordes that skittered through back-alleys and along roof-tops while Nuln’s militia struggled to mount a desperate defense against the horde of terrors from beneath the city. The Skaven, it seemed, had returned.
That was several hours ago. The fighting swept through your neighborhood on the western side of Handelbezirk like a great gust of wind. Fire had claimed a few buildings… Old Marrey’s stables and the cobbler’s shop, but otherwise the buildings were largely untouched. A barricade or two had been erected to block streets, but mostly the district was abandoned in favor of higher ground and better fortifications in Altestadt soon after the fighting began. The occasional cry of pain or explosion of gunpowder can be heard, but the streets have returned to a deceitful peace.
From the windows of your favored tavern, The Buxom Widow, you watched the fighting roll by. Only one or two of the rat-men found their way into the tavern from the cellar, and these were dealt with quietly by you few patrons before their breach down below was boarded up. Since then, silent breaths and anxious glances have been the only form of communication between those of you who held out against the Skaven onslaught from the safety of the Widow’s common room. Now, it seems the time has come to venture forth and see what is left of your city.