“It”s time to take out that wretched Aelf”
Kharadron Admiral Ordo Bjornssen stood glaring at the four party members, his eyes aflame with revenge and hate.
“She needs to die for this… this… crime! We all know not to trust Aelves, but this, this is worse than we could have imagined.“
Raith stood before the admiral and snorted in admonition “please, Admiral, respectfully we saw this coming a realm away. It was Brighteyes’ naivety that got us into this damn mess. That said,” he hastened to add, as the Duardin pulled himself up, looking to argue with the Soulbound, “we do agree that Arali needs to be taken down.”
“Not to mention we need that Enlightenment Engine if possible” Xiao put in while Raith nodded his head in agreement.
“Tell us where they are,” Verbric said to his fellow Duardin, “and we’ll make them pay for this betrayal. We’ll rip the heart out of the pathetic Pilgrimage and show them what happens to those who deal in such dishonourable ways.“
_________
The Expedition had, essentially, no ships to spare. Weeks of warfare and the great failings of the past few days had left them short of military might, and what they had was heading off to combat the Chaos threat wherever it was needed. Even Bjornssen had little to give the party, saying that his “penultimate weapon” whatever that was, was being used elsewhere. All that being said, they were not wholly empty-handed, and the party now flew aboard the Flickerborne. The ship was a Frigate, small as it was, but it seemed to be very much on its last legs. It had massive rips through the metal along the sides, burn marks across the decking, and it made an awful sound as it flew. But what it lacked in beauty, efficiency, and airworthiness, it made up in having several tricks hidden within its ugly little shell. A massive cannon stood in the front of the ship, at some point in the past the front of the cannon had been removed (or blown off) and it was replaced with something that hummed strangely and spewed out a blue glow haphazardly. The decking was also covered in a host of glyphs that seemed to move when you weren’t looking at them.
“I am right-glad that ye decided to take my wee ship here on yer adventure Soulbound,” the ship’s captain said to the group, “she’s a little rough around the edges, but I can assure you that she can do what needs to be done.”
“We’re looking to steal an engine created from the Age of Myth from atop two Magmadroths,” Xiao replied blandly, “destroy the leader of our greatest enemy and survive an army of Fyreslayers, Sylvaneth, and worshippers of Khaine.”
“Well,” the captain replied, wide-eyed, “I’m not sure about all of that… but we do have a big crane and a bigger gun…? We’re more used to fighting against the undead these days, are we going up against any of those?”
“No,” Xiao replied, “but what do you have that you use against the undead…? I hear you some of the Kharadron have come up with… unique… ways to combat them?”
At that, the captain giggled behind her mask. They most certainly did…
_________
Their quarry was found crossing a large frozen lake, or at least something akin to a lake. It reflected the sky above perfectly, and even though two Magmadroths walked across, it did not seem to buckle or melt. The army itself was arrayed across the lake when the binding found them. In the front, retinues of Fyreslayers walked in marching formation followed by the aforementioned two Magmadroths. Astride two huge howdahs strapped to the creatures was the Enlightenment Engine, encased now in some sort of metallic sphere.
Behind the two creatures, a primary force of Daughters of Khaine was led by what seemed to be a leader’s entourage of sorts, although the party could not be sure that Alari herself was there.
Flanking both of these forces on either side, moving around the lake instead of across it was a veritable forest of Sylvaneth. This would not be an easy mission, not at all, but if anyone could do it, it was this binding.
“Well,” Raith said, summoning his shadow steed, “let’s see what one of the babies can do.”
What Raith held in his hand as he flew towards the front of the Khaine worshippers was one of three very large vials that the Khemist of the Flickerborne had been found nervously holding in the hold of the ship. As bounty hunters, the crew of the ship had acquired a number of… unique… artefacts in their time. Of all of the treasures that they held, these three bottles were the most precious and by far the most deadly. “They hold three separate Endless Spells that we caught right here in Shyish,” Brontekki Flickerlight had told them, “but we no longer know which one is which, and to be honest, we believe one of them made us forget what any of them originally did anyway…”
And so Raith rode forth, towards a small army, with an unknown weapon in his hand. As he dove towards the Khainanites he aimed true, throwing the bottle behind the Magmadroths, right in the midst of a sea of flesh and red. And he immediately flew skyward as fast as his steed could take him. As he looked behind him down towards the ground, what greeted him was absolute anarchy. A massive scythe formed of purest amethyst magic was tearing its way through the lines of warriors, scattering the forces as it ploughed through the most forward section where, presumably, the leader of the force was travelling. The huge scythe was carving a swath of dead bodies between the Magmadroths (now moving in a panic) and the rest of the army, effectively cutting the line in half.
Screaming from the horse Raith motioned for Verbric to join him, “well that worked!! You’re up ship-team, give them hell!” and with that, the party split in half with Xiao and Cerlana taking the ship down towards the Magmadroths and Verbric and Raith flying towards the back lines of the Khainanites.
Verbric and Raith moved like flame atop oil, causing havoc as they drew more and more warriors towards themselves. They slew dozens of Witch Aelves in their first assault, but truly aimed at pulling the group as far away as possible from the engine. They were not able to take on so many, but they just needed to buy some time…
The Flickerborne, on the other hand, sought to disrupt another line, namely, the Fyreslayers. “Well,” Cerlana called out on the deck, the wind whipping past them, “let’s hope this one is as effective as the other one!” The vial turned beneath the ship, flying towards the Fyreslayers that had begun to move to protect the Magmadroths. As it smashed beside one of the beasts a huge etheric hourglass sprang up, spinning its way through the lines of chanting Duardin. The air itself twisted and turned about the hourglass, and each time it came close enough to one of the Berzerkers it sent the warrior flying backwards, either as a pile of bones or as a small adolescent Fyreslayer, weighed down with massive axes and shield. Most astonishingly though was what happened to one of the Magmadroths carrying the engine, the Terminexus had not caught the beast properly, but it had been close enough. The beast shrunk down in the blink of an eye, a baby Magmadroth the size of a large dog now running for cover as the engine toppled to the side of the remained adult monster.
“I do believe nothing will surprise me now…” Xiao called out as the pair signalled the captain to bring the ship about, aiming it straight towards the engine.
“That’s our cue!” Raith screamed to Verbric on the other side of the battlefield. Hoisting the screaming battle-charged Duardin back onto the shadow steed the pair pulled away from the fight, one that had taken a good half of the remaining witches away from the centre column.
There was one Magmadroth left, now thoroughly panicked, pulling the engine towards the nearest tree line, away from either force. It would be a close one, but they had a slim chance regardless. From one side of the monstrosity, both Cerlana and Xiao sent every destructive spell they knew at the machinations holding the engine onto the beast. And just as the final one on their side came free, Verbric leapt from the flying steed onto the massive back and began running across the top of the beast.
“Quick!” Raith called out to the Duardin, as he carved a strike through the first of the two remaining straps. At the same time, Cerlana and Xiao both suddenly screamed in warning, the Terminexus had swung around, heading straight towards the fleeing Magmadroth. As Verbric made his final strike at the remaining strap, he could see that he may have been too late. The engine swung free, and he leapt atop the falling sphere, just as the Magmadroth roared in defiance at the spinning hourglass. Etheric energy whipped past and through Verbric, as the Magmadroth spilt molten lava, ash, and bones in an explosion that pushed the sphere further away from the carnage.
From Raith’s perspective, it had been the end of his friend, but intuitively feeling that fullness in his soul, he spurred the steed on around the explosion. There, on the other side, Verbric was struggling to his feet, alive. As Raith pulled down to pick up his fellow Soulbound the two stared at each other, each knowing what had happened. Verbric now had a massive white beard flowing from his face down to his toes.
“Would you two stop goggling each other already!” Xiao called from the ship as it pulled up beside them. “What do we want to do? We can get the engine, but what can you do about that…?” She was pointing out at the lines of Witch Aelves that had begun to reform.
“You worry about the engine,” Raith agreed, “hand us the last of those vials and we’ll take care of the Aelves!”
“Aye, ye can do that,” Verbric said to Raith, “I’m staying with the ship, that there Duardin force is coming our way, and I want what they have…”
. . .
As Cerlana and Xiao, with the help of Flickerlight hitched the Engine to the ship, Verbric pulled out far enough away so as to be in the way of the oncoming Fyreslayer force. The Berserkers were attempting to herd the scared Magmadroth and still make their way towards the engine. And Verbric used that slight confusion to his advantage. He roared to life, breathing in the power of his runes, he cut a bloody path through the Fyreslayer lines. Screams came from all around, panicking further the beast, and sending it kicking and clawing at the nearest Duardin. Verbric ducked and weaved his way through the fight, blocking the slashes that came near with his shield and cutting down knees, left and right. But there were too many, and even as he had cut down nearly half of the force, they began to coalesce on him, ignoring the crazed beast for a moment in order to focus in on the killing machine in the midst. A cut went through his forearm first, weakening his shield arm. Then a nick to his thigh, creating a pool of blood around the spinning Duardin. Then a knock to the head, and a deflected strike. And then Verbirc went down.
Cerlana and Xiao saw him fall before the oncoming threat, flying low over the ice towards their lone friend as fast as the could given the engine dragging below. And then a brilliant light burst from across the battlefield. Their ears suddenly rang as the deathly howls spun from the Aelf lines. The number of souls soaring above the battlegrounds cast a spectral glow for miles as an etheric chest the size of a small ship sucked through the lines of Witch Aelves. The Fyreslayers paused, the Magmadroth paused, but the Flickerborne did not, and so didn’t Verbric. The Duardin drew in one last pull of strength, pulling on the Soulfire within the party to make a last grapple, throwing himself against the small Magmadroth, and pushing it just far enough that we could catch the large chain hanging from below the ship that descended down. And then, in that small window of time, they were off, Verbic roaring in glee, effort, and pain, as he hung… one hand holding the chain above, the other the Magmadroth below.
_________
“That… was insane,” Raith said to the binding and Flickerlight about an hour later. They had managed to escape the battle, noting with wonder that the Sylvaneth forces hadn’t moved an inch the entire time. They now found themselves doing their best to mend the wounds of a very excitable Verbric, as he tousled with his new friend. In front of them stood the metal sphere, still attached to the ship.
“It opens easily enough,” Flickerlight noted, “wanna take a look inside before we get back. You know… to… ahem, check for broken parts or… something… ?”
“Yes….” Xiao said, smiling in glee, “yes, that does sound like a good idea now doesn’t it….”
