After freeing Hammer’s End from the terror of the Kruleboys of the Impalers, Tcimmera wasted no time in preparing the settlement to host the Wardens of Burden. She tasked some of her Chamber with laying the foundations of a new Stormkeep that would protect Hammer’s End, while the rest she led to secure the colony itself. Something didn’t sit right with her about the town; the fine sense of the Dracoths piqued at them, warning of the presence of a far more insidious threat than the Orruks. Taking a pair each of Desolators and Tempestors, Tcimmera turned her attention to the streets and homes of Hammer’s End, determined to uncover whatever threat remained and drag it into Sigmar’s light.
To her surprise, Tcimmera found that the original Stormcast protecting the Dawnbringer Crusade hadn’t been completely wiped out. A Celestial Warbringer, Knight-Arcanum Synast Constellation, had been grievously wounded but survived nonetheless, seemingly armoured by the conviction that it hadn’t been their time to die yet.
Before Tcimmera could puzzle out the intricacies of that foreboding prediction, a call resounded from the town square. Rushing with Synast Constellation to the origin of the disturbance, Tcimmera found shocked citizenry staring at a statue in the centre of the square. As Tcimmera and Synast approached it, they saw blood trickle from the statue’s unseeing eyes. The crowd began the scream and run as that trickle became a flood, and from the pooling lake daemonic forms emerge.
As the Blades of Khorne pulled themselves free of the gorey morass, Tcimmera bellowed for her Desolators and Tempestors, before charging straight at the Khornates. A trio of Skullgrinders siblings, evidently leaders of the daemonic horde, stepped forth to meet her challenge. One was torn apart with ease, and rapidly the Desolators and Tempestors bounded into the square to meet the Bloodletters head-on. Synast Constellation raises their hands and voice to summon purifying energies of the storm, invigorating the Stormcast to fight all the harder against their nemeses.
But try as the Wardens of Burden might, the Khornate assault was so furious and sudden that they were quickly forced onto the backfoot. The surviving Skullgrinders, incensed by Tcimmera destroying their brother, fought back with renewed vengeance, mauling the Lord-Celestant and the Desolators. The Tempestors were counter-charged by Bloodletters; Kaukab and Pleiras were dragged down and beheaded by the daemons, and while Nuray and Lunax fought grimly on they were eventually put on Shyish’s doorstep. The battle was a mutual bloodbath as blood flooded the square, until only a single Bloodletter and Synast Constellation were left.
The pair duelled, but in the end the Bloodletter’s hatred of the mage overpowered Synast’s arcane might. It ran them through with their Hellblade, spilling their holy blood across the cobblestones.
Synast Constellation had foreseen their death however, and had been furiously planning on turning it to their advantage. Even as Azyr’s holy energies boiled up within them to return them to the Anvil of Apotheosis, Synast expended the last of their magic super-charging their final thunderstrike. As lightning exploded from their body it rapidly became a storm, engulfing the portal of blood and scouring it from Hysh’s reality. The last Bloodletter managed to escape before the portal was shut to whatever reward Khorne might see fit to grant it, but for now at least Hammer’s End was protected from further incursion.
As Tcimmera picked herself up from the ground, she became filled with a familiar wrath; that directed against the weakness of her allies. Such a powerful ritual couldn’t be conducted without help, which meant that the people of Hammer’s End had to have been compromised. Now, because of their corruption, a Tempestor had been slain, and Synast’s fate was beyond Tcimmera’s power to guess. As she lifted her hammer, Tcimmera fought the temptation to order a purgation of Hammer’s End. It would be bloody work if carried out by the Extremis Chamber, but Tcimmera had no doubt that her Wardens of Burden would execute it faithfully, until only the faithful and true remained.
Tcimmera was spared from making that order by the arrival of the Knight-Azyros, Bartheliman of Unclouded Eyes. Immediately guessing Tcimmera’s internal conflict, he offered to lead the investigation while she recovered from her grievous wounds. Tcimmera at first argued against Bartheliman, stating that she had suffered worse and still kept fighting, but eventually acquiesced when she realised that her wounds weren’t what concerned Bartheliman.
The Knight-Azyros was given command of a portion of the Wardens to facilitate his investigation. His influence would ensure that a gentle touch in uncovering corruption would be used, and while it wouldn’t be bloodless only the truly guilty would be punished. It vexed Tcimmera that she had to surborn her judgement to Bartheliman’s, but as her hate dimmed she knew it was the best course of action. It took someone who could see shades of grey to reveal the heart of Chaos’ corruption, and lance it precisely without hurting the innocent. Tcimmera no longer trusted her own judgement to be able to do so.
