Piercing the Veil
The rout at Freebooter's Tower had costed Kalyustar many days. Unable to clearly match the indications in the map to the overgrown paths of the Harrowmark, he and the Cursed Company had slogged on slowly, often having to backtrack once realising they had taken a wrong turn. Worse still, discordant shanties and guttural calls had regularly reached Kalyustar's hears over the constantly howling winds. The Rotmoons were following them, never getting close enough to be confronted.
But now, the Cursed Company was close to their objective, the Charybdis Occolum. According to the map, the Twisted Oak was near the arcane observatory, the final clue to its location hidden in the ruin’s engravings.
'How do you intend to deal with the orruks, Soulchemist? They seem to have outsmarted you over and over again recently...' cold sarcasm tinted the Shadeglass Skull's voice.
"They have not! I listened to those that are below me and cared for the safety of what are nothing but minions..."
'And once again, you were left with nothing but thy soul to keep. So I ask you again, what do you intend to do now?'
"Follow the teachings of the Master. Be merciless and cunning and patient". Coils of Shyishian magic writhed around the necromancer. They latched onto Grellem Vallkern and a clutch of skeletons, puppeteering them back into the deep of the woods.
"They will slow down the orruks. Failing that, I'll call upon them to secure the Twisted Oak once I decyphered the arcane inscriptions on the Charybdis Occulum".
'Good Soulchemist, good'.
As he approached the Charybdis Occulum, Kalyustar felt dark energies emanating from the gnarled saplings growing around it. The wood of only one of them would act as a thaumaturgic compas to the Twisted Oak, said the map. One, dripping blood-like sap, was already within his soldiers' reach.
As expected, most of the Rotmoons showed up, immediately rushing around one of the sapling crawling with poisonous spiders.
Intoning Van Hel's Danse Macabre, Kalyustar sent his skeletons to clash with the incoming orruks, securing a third sapling emanating an aura of palpable dread and protecting the gore soaked one.
Kaptain Da Leeva and Dragante climbed up the Occolum platform, stopping Rhedgar and a swordmen from reaching the sapling feeding on the arcane energies of the observatory.
Ignoring the fights, Kalyustar approached the walls and started reading the inscriptions. From now on, the Cursed Company only had to keep the Rotmoons where they were, even if that meant they were crushed to boney dust.
Krunti and Tollich joined the fight on the Occulum, but Dragante and the Kaptain fought with typical orruk fury. The skeletal duardin, Rhedgar and an halberdier were quickly smashed to pieces.
Another skeleton fell to the Rotmoon deckhands defending the dreadful sapling.
Only around the gore soaked sapling, the Cursed Company managed to fend off the orruks' attack.
Finally, Kalyustar found the answer he was looking for. The arcane inscriptions couldn't be more clear. Poisonous is the sap of the Twisted Oak and poisonous creatures will lead to it.
Kalyustar turned to the sapling crawling with spiders. With glee he saw the Rotmoons had left only Awkwardo to guard it. With an imperious tought, he summoned Grellem and his skeletons to emerge from the woods behind the unaware deck hand.
Then El Doctoro came forward, Waaagh! energy fizzling around him and his mates. They were headed for the dreadful sapling.
Kalyustar summoned Rhedgar back onto the Occolum platform, just in time for the Skeleton Champion to be felled together with Tollich by the raging Kaptain and Dragante.
Kheinrich stood alone, surrounded by el Doctoro and his crew, amidst the scattered remains of two skeletal henchmen.
At the gore drenched sapling, a single swordmen still hold on, his companion's remains crushed under a fallen orruk.
Leaving the minions to be pummeled by the orruks, Kalyustar strode confidently towards Awkwardo. Grellem and his retinue shambled forward, leaving only one escape route to the terrified orruk.
As Awkwardo disappeared in the undergrowth, Kalyustar unstoppered one of his vials. The smoke emerging from it coiled around the sapling, killing it and scattering the spiders. After a few seconds of frantic scuttling, the critters formed into a compact swarm and crawled away.
With a chilling laughter, Kalyustar started to follow them, the Cursed Company behind him keeping the Rotmoons at a safe distance.
***
Saul's side of the story is here.
The Crow's Nest
For days the Cursed Company had tried to find the path shown on the map. The endless forest of the Harrowmark seemed to constantly shift, as if willfully trying to stop Kalyustar from reaching the Twisted Oak. Then, for the first time since he had been bonded into service, Grellem Vallkern spoke to the Soulchemist.
"Ascension is the path through darkness".
"What do you mean, servant?" Kalyustar snapped at the Wight.
"From the heights comes illumination. This I learnt from my enemies in Hysh".
'He might be right!" the Shadeglass Skull's whisper prevented Kalyustar's frustration at the Wight's aphorisms from exploding into a sorcerous blast. 'Reach a high point, and from there read the map, Soulchemist'.
"Yes! How come I couldn't think of it? Cursed Company, we march upon Freebooter's Tower!"
The night was nearly over when the Cursed Company reached Freeboter's Tower. Guttural voices rung in alarm from the ramparts and the hulking shape of Kaptain da Leeva emerged in the light cast by a lantern.
"The brute blots the light with his lack of wit. He belongs to me", rattled Grellem Vallkern.
"So be it!" in spite of the Wight's annoying aphorism, Kalyustar was starting to appreciate his qualities. "Take an elite party with you and assault the main door. I will lead the common soldiery to storm the walls".
Summoning all the Seneschals and Skeleton Champions to his side, Grellem Vallkern advanced towards the tower. A lone orruk sentinel was mercilessly trampled over by the advancing skeletons.
With the speed of the race it once belonged to, Thronir reached Kaptain Da Leeva, its rusted spear ripping through the orruk's great coat. In return, the pirate's cutlass smashed the aelf skeleton to pieces.
El Doctoro and the rest of the Rotmoons rushed to the ramparts. Unable to draw a bead on Kalyustar's party in the faint light of dawn, they taunted the necromancer.
Da Leeva made a sortie, vaulting over a stack of empty barrels to impale Rhedgar and then leaping back to safety.
Behind the Kaptain, Bortagno retched violently as he tried to keep down some Troggoth Guts he had greedily swallowed.
Kalyustar intoned Van Hel's Danse Macabre and the skeletons rushed forward, inaccurate lead shots whistling around them. The Necromancer then read from a Scroll of Summonation found at the Hurricane Bell. Kheinrich answered, rushing past the orruks at the base of the tower and reaching the balcony.
Grellem Vallkern raised Rhedgar again and sent it against Da Leeva together with Tollich and Krunti. They carried with them Gallowbark Splinters, and Corpsebloom coated weapons and Krunti read from a Scroll of Abasoth's Withering, weaking the massive orruk Boss.
Still they could not bring Da Leeva down. Though badly injured, he fell Rhedgar again. Only Grellem's intervention stopped him from smashing the others.
Kalyustar took a couple of glancing hits from Bold Rikk's pistols, but stood firm. Sorcerous blasts scorched the ramparts, but not the orruks sheltering behind. In a last ditch attempt before sunrise, Kalyustar intoned Van Hel's Danse Macabre once more.
The skeletons jerked forward, the weakened Bortagno overwhelmed by the frenzied tide of bones and rusted metal. But only the Skaven made it past the ramparts.
As the sun rose, the orruks brought all their guns to bear. In the cloud of black smoke and splintered bones, Kaptain De Leeva still stood defending the main door. Noisily sung shanties signaled the arrival of the Rotmoon reinforcements.
'The day is lost, Soulchemist. Swallow your pride and retreat!' the Shadeglass Skull's command broke through Kalyustar's astonishment.
"Swallow my pride? That's all Grellem's fault! This siege was his idea! Why am I surrounded by incompetents?"
***
Saul's side of the story is here.
Ill Gotten Gains
The Cursed Company was negotiating the tangled wood towards Wortbad. Kalyustar was sure the Rotmoons must had made it back to the Rose & Scythe. And there, he would have ambushed them and seized the bundles of papers the orruk had stolen from him. Then the map to the Twisted Oak would have surely been his.
'Can you feel it, Soulchemist?', the Shadeglass Skull's whisper broke into Kalyustar's thoughts.
"What...?" it took a moment for the necromancer to realise what the Skull meant. An incorporeal wailing, drifting through the etheric currents. The wailing of embittered souls. And it was fast approaching.
'I can tell you, Soulchemist, these are the spirits of the Grieving Princess' crew. Do you know what they want?'
"What led them to their death, I can hear their mournful cries. The map to the Twisted Oak!"
'Yes... you have it! Hidden in one of those bundles. What are you going to do now?'
"Whatever it takes to keep those spirits, and anyone else, away from it! And at my hideout I have everything that can keep the dead and the living at bay."
With a single thought, Kalyustar imparted new orders to the Cursed Company. As one, the skeletons and wights halted, jerked around and made haste for the skull-carved cliffs of the Hurricane Bell.
Kalyustar halted outside the Hurricane Bell with Krunti, Tollich and a clutch of skeletal henchmen. With few words of power, he held off the pursuing spirits, while ordering Grellem Vallkern to patrol the woods with his own retinue.
The remaining skeletons followed Thronir on the deck of the Hurricane Bell to establish a defensive position and keep their salvage safe.
Suddenly, the squawking of the everpresent crows was silenced by arguing orruk voices.The Rotmoons were coming, surely aware by now that they had not recovered the map to the Twisted Oak.
Dudoso and Bold Rikk stood back, opening fire with their crude blackpowder weapons.
Krunti and a swordman rushed around the base of the Hurricane Bell to intercept Bortagno's group, but El Doctoro blasted the swordman with his Waaagh! sorcery.
Kaptain Da Leeva and Percy Percy charged up to the Bell deck, quickly grabbing whatever scroll or book within reach. Kalyustar motioned all the skeletons forwards to repell them, while raining sourcerous blast on the Kaptain. As he did so, the vindictive revenants of the Grieving Princess' crew slipped past his defenses and ravaged both skeletons and orruks.
Grellem Vallkern and his retinue rushed back from their patrol, emerging from the woods at the back of El Doctoro's party.
The Rotmoons too had left some of theirs back, and led by Dragante they approached from the south of the Hurricane Bell. With a single thought, Kalyustar sent the orruk and a halberdier to intercept them.
On the Bell's deck, Kalyustar and the skeleton brought Percy Percy down, not before the orruk tossed a heavy log book to his mates below. In the commotion, Kaptain Da Leeva made it off with more of the scrolls.
The Kaptain joined El Doctoro as Grellem led his skeletons into a shambling charge.
Dragante fell the skeletal orruk and engaged the halberdier, freeing up Awkwardo. But as the boy advanced through the woods, Thronir lept from the Hurricane Bell deck and barred his way.
Bortagno smashed aside Krunti and broke out of the encircling skeletons, rushing up the Hurricane Bell's stairs two at a time.
Both Kalyustar and Grellem kept summoning fallen skeletons back, throwing them into the combat for the scrolls held by the orruks led by El Doctoro and Kapatain da Leeva.
As Tambor and Bold Rikk fell, Bortagno reached the Bell's deck, grabbed the last bundle of papers and leapt off.
Grellem spotted the map among the papers carried mere moments before by Bold Rikk. His voice rattled out, and both Tollich and Keinrich moved back to form a perimeter around it.
Francot breached in from the only weak spot, but the Wight King stepped forward, his baleful blade trailing ghostly flames across the orruk's chest.
With the map secured, Kalyustar ordered the Cursed Company to hold their ground and keep the Rotmoons at bay.
As the orruk fled with whatever worthless paper they had secured, Kalyustar laughed silently on the Bell's deck.
'A well executed defense, Soulchemist. Bask in your success, until you can...'
"Do you think I forgot this is just the beginning? Do you think I forgot that a map of the Harrowmark is a treacherous thing?"
'Oh no, Soulchemist! Be proud of your schemes and tactics! Just remember what is your place in the Master's plan'.
"I do! It is to seize power over the Harrowmark and bring my vengeance upon those that left me here in exile!"
'Pride and arrogance... some of the Master's preffered qualities. And he always rewards those that show them'.
***
Saul's side of the story is here.
