“Thank you for joining us. We have had great success with the Soulbound in this war, we hope that you too can help us.”
Anruil Brighteyes himself stood before the Binding. They had made their way to the Expedition’s camp, and had made themselves available to the war effort. But aside from a handful of skirmishes in and around the city of Tsatraya, Cheez Hunks had been largely recuperating from their ordeal through the Ghyrplunge. Now, it was time to get back out on the field though.
“As you can see from our current look at Lake Bykaal, we’ve made huge strides in this war in the past week. I can also confirm to you that we’ve managed to get messengers through the Realmgate, back to Hammerhal, so we’re praying that something comes of that. We’ve also sent scouts out to fill in gaps of our knowledge of the Enlightenment Engine that is currently being held by my step-sister and her… Pilgrimage…”
“That all being said, our knowledge of Lake Bykaal is still vague, and many of the reports that have come back from scouts do not contain the depth of knowledge that we need to win this war. Because of this, I would like to set you off to find more information for us.
I want you to go to Belleck’s Trench. It is located here, south of The Breach, at the heart of the Undivided coalition. We are being told by our diplomats that the Soulmuncherz are right in the middle of a war with them, on the water, and around town of Pozneyy. The Soulmuncherz have the village, Undivided pushed back, but we still don’t know how so many chaos forces, particularly Nurgle, keep appearing.
We need you to get close, and retrieve as much information as you can.“
And so, after accepting a number of artefacts and other needed equipment, Cheez Hunks had set off. They began their journey by moving down the side of the lake, towards the Cathedral of the Mariner. The Expedition simply didn’t know enough of Bellecks Trench, and the hope was that someone in Perpetual would know more. And seeing as they had an uneasy alliance now, well, it would be better then nothing, and a whole lot easier now then later if the alliance ever faltered.
Now, as they came over a rise near the town, they rethought their idea. Below them a battle raged, Undivided forces clashed with Perpetual, deamon and bonereaper alike battling across the town, falling in droves as each army threw themselves at each other.
“Well, are we sure we want to do this…?” Cerlana asked the group.
“Certainly,” Raith answered, “although… might I suggest we find a way through to Perpetuals command centre that doesn’t involve us all being maimed or killed?”
The rest nodded in agreement, the rooftops would have to do. It was times like these where they each thanked their gods for their place amongst the Soulbound, the binding giving them the supranatural ability to bound from rooftop to rooftop, and when needed, duck and weave amongst the battle, in order to find their way up to the command centre. Although they were, of course, stopped at the entrance, the alliance between the two coalitions allowed them entrance at last.
“Why do you come before us?” the Bonereaper asked them. “We may well have a ceasefire at this time, but that does not usually entail guests.”
“Thank you nonetheless,” Raith replied, “We understand that you are… preoccupied-“
“Not for long” the Bonereaper interjected, “Nagash will claim all, this is merely a pebble in the boot that will be exterminated like all else“
“Uh, yes, that is…. true…. With that firmly in mind, we wondered if maybe you could fill in some gaps in our knowledge of Lake Bykaal”
“This is not possible, you do not simply lack information. You lack the ability to comprehend even the most basic tenants of knowledge. It would not be possible to fill in your gaps, as your puny brains are made up of, primarily, gaps.“
“That is, quite the statement,” Raith replied, narrowing his eyes, “how about you humour us, we only need to know what you know of Bellecks Trench.”
“I did not say. this to offend, I am simply stating a fact. Needless to say, yes, I can inform you of Bellecks Trench. Deep below the surface of Lake Bykaal is the final resting place of the necromancer, and false-king, Yusuf Belleck, a man possessed of such hubris that he sought to carve out his own underworld and, in his own mind, rival the great lord Nagash. It is known that he claimed to do this to house the bodies of kings and emperors that he had defeated. But Nagash knows all, and he knew this to be a lie, and a ruse to hide his arrogant desires. And so, our great lord, the great Undying King, struck him down. It is said that the deathstroke created a great fissure in the floor of the lake, but our lord, in his wisdom, has not deemed us worthy of knowing this for certain.“
“Well, what do you think happened?” Xiao asked the commander.
“I do not need to inform you of my thoughts. But, yes, if you must know, I do believe there to be a fissure in reality there. It is the only thing that makes sense of the surge of Chaos forces coming out of the Lake. Now, that is all that is known of the area. Leave me“
I did have some follow-up questions you see- “ Verbric asked.
“No, you do not.” the Bonereaper interjected again, with a host of his soldiers drawing weapons, as one, without a single order.
“You know what… actually, I don’t have anymore questions…” Verbric replied.
__________________________
Crossing the ice had not been a pleasant experience for any of them, and as the party came close enough to the Trench, what they saw did not encourage them in the slightest. A literal armada of Chaos ships lay at the ready on the huge liquid section of the Lake. Even as the party stared out at the immensity of the army, another ship burst out of the waters, already flying the colours of the Undivided, Nurgle corrupted and ready for battle. Massive Kraken pulled the ships through the drink, drawing them out to the shoreline.
“How are we do get through that, let alone down under them?” Verbric growled to his companions.
“With this, my little friend,” Xiao said, pulling out an amulet Brighteyes had lent them. This allows us to summon a small patch of aethersea, or at least something like it, allowing us to dive down into the lake”
“Oh, so we can breathe underwater?” Cerlana inquired
“No… won’t actually be underwater see, the amulet allows us-“
“Oh who gives a Grimnir’s whisker!” Verbric broke in “Let’s just get it done already! I’m freezing my balls out here….”
And so they dived, or rather, floated, down to the bottom of the lake. Cerlana’s eye-lantern lit there way for a time as they made in the direction of the Trench, and where the ship had come out of the water, but it did not take long until the lantern was unneeded. It started as a dim light in the distance, but as they drew closer it grew in intensity until a proper glow made its way through the water about them. Fish swam through, the light reflecting off their multi-hued bodies, and dust motes became beautiful as they caught the brilliant light.
As the part finally drew closer to the source of the glow they found themselves atop a plateau of a sort, with a huge canyon dipping away from them. And on the other side of that canyon, a huge whirlpool, a realmgate, tore at the fabric of Shyish. It whirled about the binding this close, but did not draw them in. They had found what they had come for. So, now what?
“Ya know,” Verbric grumbled, “I don’t think that we can close that thing…”
“Really,” Xiao asked, rolling her eyes, “I’m sure there’s an off lever somewhere nearby….”
“Yeah yeah, laugh all ya like laddie, but it still stands. What the bluddy hell are we going to do?”
“Nothing, obviously,” Raith put in, “there’s nothing we can do, and anyway, Brighteyes didn’t expect anything aside from the recon. We’ve done that, let’s get back with this information.”
“Have we though,” Cerlana asked, “there is one thing we haven’t found out yet… where does that lead to…?”
“Well it’s not like we can just slip in and take a looksie now can we!?” Verbric exclaimed
“Really…?” Why not Raith muttered, and just like that, before any more could be said, he flung the Fyreslayer by the legs out through the gate. The other two roared with laughter, Verbric on the other hand, and on the other side of the gate, screamed blue murder as he swam back through as fast as his little legs could take him.
“What!?” Raith yelled, not understanding the bubble-speak that exited Verbric. “We don’t understand water-duardin!?”
“- said, bluddy… Grimnir’s beard…” Verbroc wheezed, coming back into the aethersea-like bubble, “something is bluddy…. coming… through…!”
A vibration pushed at their little bubble suddenly, confirming the Duardin’s claim, and a huge Kraken came through, swimming straight for the binding. The creature didn’t seem to be pulling a ship behind it, but atop the creature a retinue of Blightkings rode, weapons extended out, preparing for battle.
“We can’t let them live now that they’ve seen us!” Raith said
“I don’t doubt for a second they’re thinking the same thing…” Cerlana replied. And that is all they had time for, as the monster came into range, drawing the two parties into battle. The party had to stick close together, or risk battling while swimming, but they managed it. Parrying various blows for the Maggotkin, they hurled back assault after assault. But slowly and surely, they were pushed back, the Kraken itself lashing out whenever possible.
“We need to do something about the monster!” Xiao called out to the team. “Get him closer to the gate, Verbric and I can deal with it!”
“We can!?” Verbic replied.
“Well, you can at least!”
And so they pivoted, drawing the party closer and closer, back towards the gate. As they drew closer, the two struck out. First, Xiao launching a massive fireball above the mighty beast, causing it to swim closer to the lake’s bed. And then, with a mighty roar, Verbric called out for Grimnirs aid. And he answered. A volcano bursting forth from the floor, cutting up through the beast and searing it from the inside.
“Take that ye flaming piece of calamari!!” Verbric yelled out, “and the rest of ye too! Come and get some!!!!??”
After the Kraken had fallen, the Soulbound made short work of the remaining Maggotkin. They didn’t know how long it would be till the next group made their way through the gate. And so, with that, their journey had come to an end, and they left Belleks Trench.
