Previously, the heroes were approached by Epidemius in a dream. He came in the guise of father Devon and tried to convince the heroes to avoid conflict. The heroes felt more confident then ever that they should oppose Epidemius and prepared for the confrontation on Steward’s Square.
Fourth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262
(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is in low sanction)
The portal which opened up in the middle of Steward’s Square was an enormous disk of pure darkness. A void so complete that even light could not escape its darkness, being torn away from reality and sucked into its depths, causing a bright corona which resembled the orange hue of many of the lyrium crystals the heroes had gathered.
The first creatures to emerge from the void of the portal were the familiar skaven plague priests, with their distinct white fur, strange horns, and their ragged robes, adorned with strange symbols. Each carried a bronze censor which spread an ominous smoke into the square.
Next came the hulking form of rat ogres, standing twice as tall as a man, with the weight and musculature of two, thoroughbred oxen. Not all of the heroes were familiar with these brutes, and to those who saw them for the first time, it seemed like their composition was just… wrong. None of their body parts seemed to belong together, but rather looked as if they were stitched together from spare parts by a deranged puppet master. No two rat ogres were alike; each had a unique set of jagged scars from where the parts had been fused together, had been lashed, or patched up. Some of them had limbs replaced with crude weapons or implements; a forearm replaced by a crude spike, or heavy maul, a leg replaced by a blunt peg. All of them were deliberately disfigured in a horrifying way. The rusty staples which held their limbs attached to their torso strained to contain a noxious vapour which was swelling up from inside of them, eager to escape through the cracks.
Each rat ogre had a beady-eyed skaven on its back, secured in a leather harness which allowed them to drive the ogre. They were armed with a simple crossbow, and a wicked whip with which they lashed the beast they rode into a frenzy. On occasion, the rat ogre would attempt to reach back and snatch the skaven in retaliation, but their crudely engineered bulk did not afford them the dexterity, keeping their task master safe in its harness.
Several figures flew out from the void into Steward’s Square and immediately took to the sky to harass the griffon riders. These were spoken of in sacred texts as Erinyes, and known to commoners and nobility as Furies. Their bodies were hard and muscled, clad in decorative armour that accentuated their wickedness. They flew on black wings, streaked with fire, and carried wicked weapons. They seemed a dark reflection of the celestial warriors who were often depicted in churches and cathedrals dedicated to the gods of the light, and whose statues adorned the halls of the Senhadrim that the heroes had discovered.
Following the flight of the Furies came a march of infernal shock troops known as Hamatulas. Their muscular frames stood over seven foot tall and their torso, shoulders, arms, and legs were covered by spiked, metallic carapace that looked a lot like the interlocking plates of traditional armour. The razor sharp spikes varied in sizes, ranging from half an inch to up to a foot in length, and the hamatulas moved in a way that left no doubt that they were able to weaponise the spikes to a frightening and lethal effect.
Finally, the buzzing of a thousand insects welled up inside the minds of the heroes and those who stood with them. A large, lumbering beast emerged from the gate, carrying the Lord of Decay in an elaborate saddle.
The beast was enormous and dense, built like a bison, but ten times the weight. Covered in thick, brown hide, with a mane of shaggy, reddish fur, it had chitinous plates running along its spine from its forehead to its blunt tail. Short and powerful legs ended in cleft hooves, and its broad, muscled torso dragged along the ground. Metal barding was added to its head, shoulders and hips. Sunken eyes sat beneath the barding, and a curved horn protruded from it. Long tusks jutted outward on either side of its jaw, and swept low to the ground like the handles of a wheelbarrow. The tips of the tusks were fitted with metal and a barbed chain ran between the tips. This beast was bred for war, but it was also clear from the mucus which dripped from its muzzle and the puss which had crusted around its thick, enflamed eyes that it was suffering from an awful malady. Its flesh was riddled with bloated pustules teeming with the undulating eggs of parasites that seemed ready to burst open.
The rider had a wiry torso, with long arms and slender fingers. He wore a ragged robe of scarlet, opened at the front to reveal his brittle skin, sickly pale, like the colour of spoilt milk. His belly was swollen, with a large, jagged gash across it, spilling his guts across his legs like links of sausages that are long past the point of consumption. His legs seemed to be of different sizes, one larger than the other, as if afflicted by a severe case of a gout, swollen to an almost almost grotesque size.
The skin on his bald head was the same sickly pale colour, and was so thin as to chap and crust around the beady eyes, hooked nose and bloodied mouth. The skin seemed stretched so tight, as if it was a flimsy mask which did not quite fit. A row of small, sharp horns pierced through the skin where hair should be, and the back of his head was a mess of strength growth that had the colour of spoilt meat.
Bony branches grew from somewhere at the top of his back which looked like the antlers of a stag, but more twisted and gnarled. Trinkets, talismans, and animal bones adorned the antlers.
Epidemius surveyed Steward’s Square briefly, before writing something down on a long piece of parchment with a dirty quill. The buzzing of insects grew louder. The skaven moved in from all sides of the square.
Before the Erinyes engaged the griffon riders above the city, Lady Commander Miranda signalled for the squadrons lead by Ser Roderick and Dame Madeline to secure Queensbridge and Tiverton Street, while Ser Uthred took his squadrons to protect the Elysian Street. The crownsguard and custodians guarded many of the smaller entrances to the square.
Just as Ser Roderick and Dame Madeline was about to engage a host of skaven moving south from Tiverton Street, arrows were being loosed from one of the rooftops, revealing that James and the Steady Hand had moved to join the fight. Quentin moved the Morvrayne riders into formation in order to charge the ranks of rat ogres and hamatulas, and Emrys summoned a collection of crude golems to keep the rat ogres from advancing.
Emma and her disciple Dagmær arrived at the square from Queensbridge and used their connection to Sedna to drown and freeze the skaven which were climbing up from the ancient waterways in sewage.
Chakuq had put himself into a position to take out one of the plague priests and was emboldened by the charges that Quentin and the Morvrayne riders had performed on Epidemius’ forces to get closer to another plague priest he had marked.
One of the rat ogres had been seriously injured by an onslaught of magic and the opposition from the golems, and to everyone’s surprised, the remaining rat ogres turned on it and bludgeoned it to death, only for it to writhe and explode in a cloud of noxious fumes. It was not immediately clear what the rat ogres gained from turning on one of their own.
Luca had felt frustrated throughout the fight. The impotence of being cut off from Aurion was getting to him. Finally, he called out to Aurion in an attempt to renegotiate his agreement of servitude. Emrys and Neamhan, who was standing nearby Réonan heard them gasp and stare at Luca in disbelief. “No, Luca, don’t do it…” they could be heard to say in shock.
