The Night of the Sorowmœn
Kalyustar peered out of the stained glass window of the mausoleum he had come to call home.
The pale daylight of the Harrowmark was fading into night.
'Into a most auspicious night, don't you think, Soulchemist?'
"Yes, old friend. Soon the moon will raise, but tonight the Moon's Daughters are not with her".
'Did you ever wondered way it is so?'
"If we were to listen to the simpletons of the Harrowmark, the Daughters are the fragment of another moon that got shattered in some ancient cataclysm. It makes little difference to me".
'Then why are you interested in this night?'
"Because it was on a night like this that the Necroquake hit the Harrowmark. And if my studies are correct, tonight we'll hear an echo of that wave of necrotic energy. That is why on Sorowmœn the dead rest even less easily and the simpletons shut themselves in their miserable hovels".
'And so what, Soulchemist?'
'So, I'll be out there tonight, to capture and preserve that echo, so that I can use it to bolster my Company".
In the deep darkness of Sorowmœn, Kalyustar had followed the echo of the Necroquake to a pumpkin field. Leylines converged in its center and there he could hear the taumathurgic echo far better, although still faintly. The Soulchemist closed his eyes and started to recite the incantation that would have trapped that energy.
But guttural voices sounded in a mockery of a whisper. In fact being as loud as only orruk voices could be. The Rotmoons were coming, split in three groups. Kalyustar tried to use the energy he had harvested so far to summon reiforcement, but it was too little. No restless dead answered his call.
Crude arrows started to whistle by, some finding their mark into Kalyustar's body. The Soulchemist fell back to a point from where he could drew sorcerous energies from two leyline nexuses.
The Rotmoons closed onto the pumpkin field, cutting all but one escape route. But at that point Kalyustar finally managed to harness enough necromantic energy. Two Dreadwardens and a Seneschal rose from the pumpkin field.
With a might swipe of his graveblade, the Seneschal felled Awkwardo, but then three more orruks ganged up on him and brought him down.
The Dreadwardens swirled around DaLeeva and Francot, but one was soon banished by the Kaptain's cutlass.
Kalyustar felt a pulse of aetheric energies as a low moan seemed to came down from the moon and then the Dreadwarden reappeared behind Bortagno, its ghostly fingers clutching at the orruk's heart. Kalyustar poured all his spite into bolts of necrotic energy and finally the big orruk fell. But in the meantime, more arrows and El Doktoro's magic rained on Kalyustar.
Another Seneschal rose from the pumpkin field and was soon surrounded by orruks. Yet, it stood his ground.
Kalyustar realised there was no escape. Somehow, the echo of the Necroquake was far less powerful than he had expected. And now that the Rotmoons were disrupting the leylines there was little he could do. He tried to fleee, but Tambor and Parch caught up with him and pummelled him with batons and clubs.
***
'Wake up, Soulchemist!'
The Shadeglass Skull called Kalyustar back to consciousness.
'Fear not, Soulchemist! It was not your fault, and the Master knows it... Something has changed. At the hands of the pesky aelf deities, the Necroquake has been blunted'.
"It maybe so, but that doesn't change the fact that the Rotmoons have once again bested me. This has to stop! I just need a better plan!"
The Sky Dock Siege
An'sec floated away, screaming in frustration. His shape had just vanished in the distance when the amethyst energies that had built up through the whole battle erupted in a violent tornado. Some distance away from the Freebooter's Tower, the Moonclan Shamans were lifted in the air and tossed around like broken puppets. Inside the Tower, Kalyustar fell to his knees, his mind ravaged by the roaring magical energies. At the Tower'a feet, the Raidho Othalas grabbed the loot and run for shelter. Only van Toorn saw them leaving, his vision still fuzzy as he slowly came to consciousness.
***
It had taken days for the worst aftershocks of the magical upheaval to subside and allow safe Realmgate travel. Pieter van Toorn stood in front of the Haunted Gate as four heavily armoured figures emerged from the greenish light.
"Witch Hunter... why that sudden call? Venithya and its Free Companies have pressing business in much more chearful and prosperous lands", the one-eyed veteran's tone was one of veiled reproach.
"Then, Lord Captain Rodrik, ask why one of your mages has kept three Companies here, way longer than required for his original task" a flicker of rage passed through the General's good eye "But there's more. Kharadron. As always, they invoked their Sigmar-forsaken Code and turned onto us. Worse, they stroke a deal with the servants of Nagash..."
"And I guess, considering the latest developments, you don't want them to leave the area?"
"Precisely! Whatever is in their caskets goes to your men. But first, we have to find them. I've lost them in the magic storm"
"They are inside the Sky Dock, waiting for a ship" Kalyustar's voice sounded hollow behind his mask. From where he had appeared, the two men couldn't say.
"If this is true, you might have finally proven yourself, wizard" there was an icy undercurrent of menace in van Toorn's voice.
"Yet, you will have to explain your actions to the Gilded Hand Elders" as always, Captain Rodrik was just matter-of-fact. But that did not take away from the implicit threat.
I WARNED YOU THERE WILL BE NO GRATITUDE. REMEMBER WHO INFORMED YOU
Kalyustar caressed his Skull. "Should we leave these issues for later and deal with pressing matters?"
Captain Rodrik ordered the Fencers and Aurelian's Aurpards to form up together and prepare to advance. The Marksmen and Cuirassiers covered their left flank. On the right, van Toorn preared his pistol.
As Kalyustar had warned, the Raidho Othalas have had time to strenghten their hold on the Sky Dock. Every single access was manned, while their Aetherchemist supervised the defense from the Dock platform.
On the edges of Wörtbad, An'sec, the Ordeshal Riders, the White Lady and her servants approached through the parched fields.
The Rotmoons turned around Fallow End's House and emerged onto the village main square.
Whit chilling screams, the Ordeshal Riders approached the southern wall of the Skydock.
Thunderous volleys rung in all direction. Ineffective against the incorporeal Riders, bouncing off the walls of Fallow End's House, the aethershots turned out to be the undoing of van Toorn and the Cuirassiers.
As the smoke cleared, the Sky Docks were simultaneously assoulted from the north, south and the east. Kapitán da Leeva and Rockeye the Leadbelcher burst into the building, slamming onto the Kharadron Chemist.
Sheltered behind the Rose & Scythe balustrade, Kalyustar watched the fight unfold.
With the Witch Hunter gone, it is just a matter of time. Wait and see, Soulchemist, just wait!
Bortagno ad the Ordeshal Riders kept battering at the eastern gate.
On the southern wall, the White Lady burst through the press of bodies to drink deep of the Kharadron Navigator's blood.
Kapitán da Leeva's realmstone-loaded pistol belched a cloud of malevolent gheists at the Aetherchemist.
Down below, the Rotmoons cheered at the balst and rushed forward. Don Grotto hold back to land the boys moral support with his high-pitched shouts.
The second wave of the Free Companies reached the northern wall, the Aurpard's pike striking over the Fencers' heads. The Kharadron numbers were seriously reduced now.
Now Soulchemist! In a fluid motion, Kalyustar lifted the Skull. Amethyst lighting engulfed the Aetherchemist, his soul then drifting back as a purple mist. Kapitán da Leeva frothed with rage at being deprived of the kill, but the Sky Dock was safely under his control.
Pressed on all sides and without leadership, the few surviving duardin dropped their weapons and surrendered to the Free Companies. The Kharadron were let through the Free Companies lines as Captain Rodrik prepared to be charged by the Ordeshal Host.
And then, the undead retreated.
The men stood motionless, trying to understand what had happened. But none of them had noticed the dark shape darting from Kalyustar's Skull to be fondly embraced by An'sec. A faintly visible duardin's face retreated from the gheist's hand, a soundless scream pictured on its lips.
The Traitors
Kalyustar and Admiral Gunnerson had spent long ours negotiating a deal. For some reason, the Kharadron wanted the meteor seized by Kalyustar's men, but the duardin were to stubborn to get an explanation out of them. Then the Skull had wispered. The meteor in exchange for help in retaking the Hurricane Bell and three quarters of any realmstone that had been quarried around it. They had finally settled for half of the realmstone and made their way to Blackrocks. They approached with the cover of darkness, easily overtaking the grot and zombie sentinels posted around Freebooter's Tower. Kalyustar brought the meteor inside, trusting his men to Gunnerson's command.
From the Tower battlements, Kalyustar saw Gunnerson deploying men and duardin in a long line, at the same time securing unguarded stashes of realmstone.
Your men can not support each other! Can you trust the duardin?
Kalyustar had not the time to ponder the Skull's warning. With raucos shouts, Kapitán da Leeva led the Rotmoon to reinforce Bolet and the handful of boyz that had remained with the mushroom-addled shaman at the Hurricane Bell.
The White Lady strode through a nearby field, zombies raising in her wake.
Yuri sounded the charge and the Cuirassiers advanced, pistols barking. Aethershots flew around them, wracking the Zombies and forcing the White Lady to take cover. When the Curaissiers got to her, the already badly wounded vampiress was quickly dispacthed.
Kalyustar hold the Skull high and magic and fear engulfed the Rotmoons. One orruk fell, the rest took shelter wherever they could. Only the shamans withstood the barrage, their return incantations unable to cross the wardings of Freebooter's Tower.
The last zombie clawed at the Cuirassiers, somehow managing to unhorse one of them.
The wind moaned from the east, a group of skywardens riding it. Not far from them, An'sec and his riders advanced, eerie laughs streaming out of the Knight's helm.
Soulchemist! You fool! If only you had listened and pledged your services to a true power!
The words still rang in Kalyustar's mind as the Raidho Othalas turned their guns on the Free Companies.
In a flash of greenish light, Pieter van Toorn emerged from his journey through the Soulbridge, just in time to see Gunnerson leading the charge against the Free Companies.
The Rotmoons stared in disbelief. Their brutish minds unable to take in what was happening, they regrouped in a copse.
The Curaisser rode over the zombie, rushed for a stash a realmstone, grabbed what he could and darted away, An'sec's riders hot on his heels.
As the Free Companies rallied from the shock and dived for cover, van Toorn's voice sounded loud over the din of battle.
"Wizard! See where you have taken your men!"
The Rotmoons stirred into action, returning to the stash they had left unguarded.
The Endrinriggers poured fire into the Free Companies, pinning them behind the trees where they had found shelter.
Pieter reached the humans' rear line has a second duardin charge hit home.
The Hurricane Bell tolled ominously. As the echo dwindled, lighting hit the Bell platform, resolving in the shapes of a retinue of Liberators. Surrounded by corposant, the Stormcast launched themselves against the Rotmoons.
An'sec's riders caught up with the fleeing Cuirassier. Soaring above him, they lopped off his head and plunged towards the realmstone guarded by the Rotmoons.
The Kharadron artillery opened up again, leaving only Kalyustar and van Toorn to face their assault.
A wave of raw magic rolled through Blackrocks. As Kalyustar lost control over his incantations, the unbridled energies crushed onto the Rotmoons. Green beams darted out of El Doctoro's eyes. A mushroom cloud of incredible proportions erupted from Bolet. Da Leeva was imbued by such frenzy to rival the greatest of Waaagh! rages. Both Stormcast and Hexwraith dissipated under the onslaught.
As Gunnerson's hammer smashed van Toorn to the ground, An'sec's laughter sounded over the battlefield again. The Hurricane Bell and the realmstone lacing the soil around it was still his.
Kalyustar dived through the trap door and slammed it behind him, intoning words of protection. The Kharadron hammered on it for a while, then left. The wizard reached one of the arrow slits and peered out. The Kharadron surrounded a pile of crates, their guns levelled at An'sec, Gunnerson staring up at the gheist. With a chilling rage howl, the Knight of Shrouds floated away.
'A scorned power is a power searching for new allies, Soulchemist. It is time you quit your qualms'.
