Category: RPG

Previously, the heroes mounted a defence against Epidemius’ incursion into Kingsport by rallying troops and allies. Epidemius arrived through a portal with forces of his own, joined by sinister skaven and wicked devils. Some of the skaven were sacrificed to perform a ritual that intensified the disease that spread through Kingsport.

Fourth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is in low sanction)

Emrys had made a mad dash for the portal through which Epidemius and his infernal guards had come. Clutching Toruviel in hand, he called upon the miraculous powers of the blade to vault him through the air and into the portal. The portal became unstable and started to collapse, but not before Epidemius, responding with uncanny speed, crossed the short distance between him and the portal and dove in after Emrys. Chakuq, who had just jumped onto Epidemius’ mount and had engaged the fiend, was inadvertently teleported as well and drawn into the portal after Epidemius.

While the rest of the heroes stayed behind on Steward’s Square to continued battling the infernal forces, Emrys and Chakuq found themselves in a tunnel together with Epidemius, once again in the guise of father Devon. The ground was paved, though neither of the heroes would later be able to recall whether they walked on cobblestones or packed earth. The tunnel extended about a hundred foot, and the exit behind them showed Steward’s Square, but the fighting was slowed down to an almost imperceptible crawl. The other end showed a grizzly wasteland.

Across the gore-spattered waste, made up entirely of dust, mud, and loose shale rock, marches an infernal legion. Row after row of strictly regimented devils march in perfect unison. Above them hover constructs of infernal terror; flying fortresses of black metal and burning engines.

You can’t make out their enemy. There can’t seem to be any unity of form. They are creatures. Creatures whose physiology makes no sense and are utterly without order. You see what appears to be tentacles, enormous mandibles, claws, fangs, club-like limbs and tails. They aren’t bipedal, nor quadrupedal, in fact, they do not seem to have any regard of bilateral symmetry at all.

You suddenly realise that the shale rock are not rocks at all. They’re bones, millions of bones. You feel a sudden pressure in your head. You feel disoriented and nauseated. Part of your instinct is screaming for you to run.

The walls of the tunnel were made of a dense mist. This mist was new to Chakuq, but Emrys had seen it before. Upon closer inspection the heroes could see a red spiral running through the must like a vein running through marble, which Epidemius explained was the Seal of Divine Animus. Hidden in the mist, lay the realm of the Raven Queen on one side, and the realms of the Ladies of Flowers and Frost on the other side.

Chakuq felt out of his element and swiftly retreated back to Steward’s Square, while Epidemius eventually convinced Emrys not to withhold him from retreating back through the portal. Epidemius reiterated that he had no interest in causing unnecessary death, which his continued stay in the mortal realm against his will would cause. He had come, he reasoned, to put pressure on the Upright Man to return his book.

Emrys recognised that Epidemius had finalised his ritual, he worsened his stranglehold over Kingsport, and that the damage had already been done. He relented, and both he and Epidemius went their separate ways, back to their respective realms.

With the collapse of the portal, the remaining hamatulas and erinyes were cut off from their retreat. They put up a fierce fight. The skaven drove the knights, crownsguard, and custodians back to the square before cutting their losses and retreating back into the waterways.

Chakuq slew the cloven-hoofed mount of Epidemius, harvesting one of its teeth as a trophy. Chakuq recognised that the beast was not of the natural world, and that its hide was thick and durable, and had been used by the skaven to fashion armour. Luca remembered that they had encountered a set of armour made of similar hide at the Landsdowne auction house in Bournemouth, earlier that year.

There were hundreds of wounded. Lady commander Miranda, who had survived the aerial fight with the erinyes, had to put down one of the griffons due to it being grievously wounded. With tears on her face she put the majestic beast out of its misery, something which seemed to move Astrid deeply too.

Neamhan went around the wounded and used her connections to draw healing power from the land and skies. Quentin applied his dedications to as many wounded as he could help, and Luca showed his rekindled obedience to Aurion to help. Each found that despite their healing abilities, some wounds continued bleeding, while others showed persistent sigs of infection.

Soon, the silent sisters of the House of the Raven Queen appeared in the square and set to their grim task of tending to the dead. Cardinal Roark moved among them, and briefly spoke with Quentin to assure him that the Raven Queen were shepherding the fallen to the Other Side.

While the apothecaries of Pholtus cared for the wounded, joined by the clerics of the Platinum Father, Emrys and Réonan spoke together while overlooking the river at Queensbridge. Emrys shared what he saw while inside the portal. Réonan confirmed that the realm on the other end of the tunnel was Avernus, the eternal battlefield, and first of the Nine Hells.

The two agreed that it was troubling that the infernals were already able to pierce the seal. Réonan warned that the cycle seems to be speeding up, and that the ones who still remembered the Age of Fear did not remember enough and would be ill prepared to mobilise people. It appeared to Emrys that Réonan was, in part, referring to themselves. Before the two rejoined the others on the square, the archmage explained how important it was for Emrys to help and keep Luca on the right path.

Ser Benten, Lord Marcus, and Lord Destan came to join the heroes as they were about to head to the Careless Wanderer. Neamhan was amazed at the size of the trio, and noticed that Lord Jonathan, who had stayed behind with the Sheridan guard, was of an equal size. Fascinated, Neamhan developed a suspicion that these people might have giant blood running through their veins. The two Sheridan brothers decided to join the heroes at the Careless Wanderer.

In the short distance between the square and the inn, the heroes passed the dead, the dying, and the wounded. They passed barricades, and piles of dead skaven being carted off to the burn pits outside the city. When they entered the inn, there was a melange of warm aromas floating around the tavern room. The door to the kitchen was open, and the staff was walking in and out to bring food out. Tables were set and decorated, and the heroes were reminded that blind Magda had recently told the staff to switch to silver cutlery.

There were two large joints of roasted boar, basted, as promised, in ox fat, on a bed of baked apples and mushrooms. A leg of cured ham had been set up on the bar and Durham used a thin knife to cut long slices, rolling them up into salty rosettes. A large pan of beef-and-barley stew, with chunks of squash and red onions stood near the door to the kitchen and was refilled every time the bottom was reached.

Racks of the boar’s ribs were served on plates, glazed in sweet gravy, sitting on a bed of roasted leeks. Two wooden boards with rows of skewered pigeon, capsicum, and capon were set on either side of a bowl of mutton chops sauced in honey and cloves that had been placed in the middle of each table. And each table had a platter of large river trout from Blue Harbour, baked in a shell of salt, surrounded by chunks of deep-fried, beer-battered cod. Baskets of soft bread, richly buttered and dusted with salt and crushed peppercorn were placed strategically around the table.

At the top of each plate stood a small venison pie, chunky with carrots, bacon, and mushrooms, as well as a bowl of shredded crab mixed with a dressing of egg yolk, oil, and crushed garlic. The staff went around the room to serve flagons of hot, spiced wine, and chilled autumn ales. And for dessert, sugar wheels and honey cakes came out of the kitchen, as well as pears poached in strongwine.

During the feast, blind Magda walked around the tavern room talking to the guests. Eventually she disappeared for a moment, only to return carrying a distinct, wooden board. With Wojciech’s help she affixed the board to the wall near the bar while the dragonling and Wynn observed her nearby. The board read: Accorded Neutral Territory.

Andrew Selkirk found his way through the city to the Careless Wanderer and spend the evening playing music while listening to the stories being told. Chakuq regaled the tavern with the story of how he banished Epidemius with his sword. Astrid told Chakuq about the goddess Freya, who protects all children, and seemed grim as she did so.

All the while, despite the loss of Adrian and Clement, the Morvrayne riders were jubilant. Quentin, who felt the responsibility for the two fallen riders weight him down on him, intimated to Dame Pauline that he believed they got lucky. His bannerette advised him not to share his feelings with the riders for the benefit of morale. She advised him to focus instead on the arrival of his lord father. Quentin thanked Pauline for riding with him, and she told him it had been an honour.

Neamhan, not being able to contain her curiosity, managed to repulse Lord Marcus when he came to have a flirtatious chat with her. Instead, Neamhan asked Marcus whether he was giant kin, and where he was from. He seemed annoyed at the questions, and disengaged. When Lauryn pointed out to Neamhan that Marcus may have had a romantic interest in her, she scolded him and said that she had a husband. He asked her how long she had been afflicted by that problem, and walked back to his table and rejoined his brother.

Previously, the heroes confronted Epidemius during his second appearance at Steward’s Square. Luca’s frustration grew as he continued to be cut off from Aurion’s powers, and he considered turning his cloak and aligning himself to the infernal aspect that Aurion used to appear as. This opened him up to Epidemius, but Réonan intervened, and called upon Aurion to redeem Luca. Luca further deepened his pack with Aurion, but not without a price to pay.

Fourth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is in low sanction)

The battle again Epidemius and his forces continued with an overwhelming barrier of fire roaring up between some of the heroes and Epidemius. The flames burned and blistered those who stood too close to the barrier, and caused Luca to lose consciousness. Réonan, who stood near Luca, failed to help stabilise him, while Chakuq kept a nearby hamatula at bay. Eventually, the archmage teleported Luca to the Cathedral of the Platinum Father for assistance. The hamatula that fell to Chakuq’s weapons hissed “I am a hunter, too. I will come back for you,” before it died.

The hamatulas continued to kill the last of the rat ogres, nailing it to the ground with the barbs that they had snapped off their carapaces. The blood of the rat ogres seemed to flow with a mind of its own, and formed into a large circle of power, complete with major and minor sigils, As each rat ogre exploded into a cloud of noxious cloud, the vortex carrying the vapours up into the eye of the storm above grew more pronounced until it started to radiate with a fel glow.

Epidemius strode forward on his mount until he stood directly in the centre of the circle of power. He withdrew a bony sceptre and held it aloft as he spoke menacing words in a language that nobody could understand. The words rang like the buzzing of a thousand insects in the minds of all that could hear him. Once done, he dropped the sceptre in the blood which formed the circle, and the blood lit up with the same fel glow as the vortex. The light drained from the blood into the vortex, and was carried into the storm, where the energy was spread across the sky above the city like a blanket.

Epidemius wheeled his mount around and started making his way back to the portal while the fighting continued around him. Quentin and Astrid fought side-by-side after Quentin ordered the Morvrayne riders to retreat. Neamhan had shifted her form to that of an enormous elk and charged into the infernal forces. Emrys continued to unleash his magic, eventually resulting in a surge of uncontrolled magic to well up inside of him and spell out, causing persistent lightning to play across his body. The griffon riders had managed to take down one of the erinyes, which came crashing down into one of the houses like a fiery comet. Luca had regained consciousness in the cathedral and was able to help by casting spells through his dragonling.

When it looked as if Epidemius was about to depart through the portal, Emrys made a dash for Toruviel, which he had unsheathed and was hovering in the air, fighting unaided. When he snatched up the blade he ran for the portal, vaulting through it aided by Toruviel. Immediately the corona of light around the portal started to flicker, and the perfect oval started to shiver and warp. Emrys’ strange bloodline, so expertly crafted by the mysterious Mohiam, started to disrupt and collapse the portal, threatening to cut Epidemius off from his retreat.

Previously, the heroes prepared to confront Epidemius at his second arrival on Steward’s Square in Kingsport. They were supported by Lyrian knights from the Order of the Lance, under the command of Ser Uthred Locke, by Lyrian knights stationed in Kingsport, under the command of Ser Roderick and Dame Madeline, by the crownsguard and custodians, by James and members of the Steady Hand, by Emma and her disciple Dagmær, and even members of house Sheridan.

Fourth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is in low sanction)

Luca called out to Aurion in frustration, begging his patron to let him turn his back on the light and return to a simpler time where he followed the path of darkness and could make full use of Blackstar. Aurion, however, did not respond, but there was another voice that found Luca, eager to fill the void that the young warlock found at his core. His vision dimmed and the darkness around him filled with crawling creatures that all called out for Luca to join them.

Meanwhile, the battle between Epidemius and his forces, and the heroes and their support, was still raging. Luca, oblivious to anything but the voices that spoke to him, walked forward, closing in on battle in a dangerous way. His dragonling materialised from its invisibility and rushed towards him, flitting about him in a panic. Somewhere, in the back of Luca’s mind he heard a voice say that he still owed a debt to the sidhe, and that allying with the person behind the voice that Luca heard would disallow him from paying back that debt. Réonan was rushing forward, as well. Pleading with Luca to reconsider what he was doing. Eventually, Réonan grabbed Luca, who turned on the archmage and grabbed them in return. Réonan pleaded to the turbulent skies in a language that none of the heroes understood, while Luca rebuked Réonan’s words in a strange tongue of his own.

When Luca attempted to understand who he was negotiating with, he got a sudden glimpse of what servitude under this new master would mean. He saw himself carrying a pike, corralling naked people against a wall while they stood ankle deep in boiling water. These people were defenceless. They were trying to scramble up the sheer wall trying to get away from the pain. Some were climbing on top of one another, while one woman was standing on the dead form of a child in an attempt to stay away from the water.

Seemingly at the appeal of Réonan, the stormy sky briefly broke and a single shaft of light pierced the sky to fall upon Luca, filling his body with a familiar, nurturing warmth. A single, clarion tone, like that of a perfect tuning fork, rang forth from Luca’s chest spreading out from him. That sound drove away the darkness that surrounded Luca, and the creatures whispering within. Instead, his mind was filled with the voice of Aurion. After Aurion revealed himself to be a celestial there was no way back to the fiend for Luca. It became clear that Aurion presented himself to some as a fiend to see whether they could be persuaded to fight for justice. Those who could not be swayed, like Hejduk, would be sacrificed for the greater good.

Luca was confronted with an ultimatum; Aurion would grant him his obediences back, and in return, Luca would control Blackstar’s urges, and bring it to heel before Midinváerne. And should Luca fail, Aurion would take Blackstar and let it devour Luca’s soul.

While this occurred, Astrid was fighting against three hamatulas, and only kept going by the graces of healing magic. Quentin and Dame Pauline executed several charges through Epidemius’ ranks, and were subject to a venomous vapour that the fiend exhaled as they crashed through the infernal host.

And most disturbingly, one by one, the rat ogres were killed by the hamatulas in the same spot as the first one. Each exploded in a cloud of noxious vapour, just like the first. Their blood joined the blood of the first, reinforcing the disturbing circle and sigils among the rubble of Steward’s Square. The vapour was swept up in a thin vortex leading from the centre of the circle all the way to the eye of the storm above. Inside the storm, large shadows could be seen to move, below the storm Lady Commander Miranda and her griffon riders fought the vicious erinyes.

Something infernal was brewing inside the storm.

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.