The Harromark Run, Part 1

Prologue

'Sir, I think there's a clearing over there', said Lucius Scopos pointing at a tiny speck of light piercing the gloom.
'What I'd give for an inn, a mug of warm wine and a warmer young lady...' replied Fernando, idly practicing his favoured combination of parries and thrusts.
'Enough, Fernando!' hissed Kalyustar 'We're here on serious business. Signal your men to move forward, let's see if Lucius is right'.
As his Free Companies negotiated the tangled wood, Kalyustar sank in his toughts. The Eclipse had come and gone and he was no closer than before it to achieving his true goal, adding the fabled sigmarite to his collection of rare substances. If nothing else, he had wrested a scroll of power from the mutated claws of a Chaos Sorcer. And now he had accepted the Elders' order to lead an expedition to try and recover the Church of Sigmar's Retribution from the cursed Harrowmark. He didn't particularly care about the fate of the crazed Devoted, but he knew valuable substances can be recovered from the skyship wrecks that dotted the region. So far, they had found no sign of Lothar Valdemius and his followers, but they had heard of a recently crashed vessel loaded with Shyishan Realmstone. Who knew, perhaps Realmstone attuned to the power of the Great Necromancer might be the tool he needed to stop sigmarite from discorporating and return to Azyr. That crashed vessel was their quarry now, if only they can manage to find a way through the suffocating gloom.

Might is Right

Dawn had not yet broke when the Free Companies finally approached the Freebooter's Tower. From there, Kalyustar was hoping to located the wreck site. Suddenly, a pale lady, accompanied by a ghostly horseman advanced towards them. Slightly away, the raucos shouting of orruks could be heard above the whistling winds.

As the first sunlight touched upon the Tower's battlements, one of the Fancy Fencers reached them and started scanning the region. The White Lady run for Kalyustar. Crossbow bolts darted at her, but she ignored them with a cruel smile on her lips. With contempt, she dispatched Kalyustar and Antonius, the Marksmen's drummer.

A hulking orruk boss charged one of the Fancy Fencer, but as the trill of Esteban's flute dissipated, the brute found itself surrounded. Another orruk charged a lone Deathwalker. Slowed down by the grasping roots, the greenskin failed to hit and was brought down. The White Lady, after felling Lucius Scopos poured her Arcane Bolts onto the melee at the feet of Freeboter's Tower.

Jorge, from the top of the Hurricane Bell, saw the ghostly horseman running over most of the orruks. As his companions felled the boss he ordered them to rally around him. The undead had clearly won the day and dragging the wounded to the safety of the Hurricane Belt was the only thing to do. From there, they could reorganise themselves and plan their next move.