Deluge of Evil

To the northeast of the fair land of Tempestria lies a forest so thick, it beggars all desire to enter it. And more, the legends of the evil that dwells under its dense boughs are enough to quail and heart with fear and overwhelming trepidation. It is known as the Stygian Wood.

And within that wood, at its deepest valley, further in than any human has ever ventured, and protected by mountains all round it, sits the Drak Heart, the stinking fetid dwelling of the Beastmen.

For years the outer edges of the Stygian Wood have been silent and no man knows what horrors have been perpetrated further in; but Chaos is ascending now. The ancient and evil rocks brought down from the heavens by the dread arch-necromancer Nagash have wakened things that should never be wakened, and now they come, baying and howling, charging down through the thickets of the Stygian Woods toward the open pastures of Tempestria and the castle of Tempest Falls.

After her victory against the Kingdom of the Great Maw, Queen Rachel d’Astatic was ranging eastward along her borders, inspecting the defences she had ordered be placed to guard against incursion. Up until now, the Stygian Wood had been an impenetrable bulwark as significant a stopping-point as a cliff; but now, encouraged by Methuselah, her lover, her ambition to cleanse all the Border Princes of evil required the purging of these woods.

It was as she entered the camp that the howling started.

 Long had tales been told of a threat that might exist from this quarter, but no serious provision had been made to prepare for it. Having said that, Rachel’s own protective bodyguard of knights as well as the garrison already in place would surely be enough to see off all aggressors.

Rachel ordered her archers into position, waiting to do to the Beastmen what they had done to the Ogres, but the Cloven Ones were more wily. They did not run across an open plain toward the ranked arrowmen, they came through the woods obliquely, forcing the archers to redeploy, wasting precious time.  

The knights galloped forward to engage the foul-smelling warriors as Rachel, powerful as ever, incinerated a giant with a single volley of magical Tzeentchian fire, but even as they impacted the front of a large unit of Beastmen Gors, their captain got the feeling they’d been lured into a trap.

And then the trap was sprung, as a huge Ghorgon burst through the trees and into their flank, ripping them apart one by one.

The Beastmen Shaman concentrated, sending out his dark consciousness, and as he walked along entranced, a gargantuan Jabberslythe, under his control, emerged from the undergrowth and darted forward.

A Tusgor Chariot slammed into the other unit of knights as the Jabberslythe descended on them from the side, once again ripping them apart and sending them fleeing.

The rocks thrown by the Tempestrian catapult kept missing their target and then the mechanism jammed, just as a pack of Chaos Hounds leapt onto the crew and started to devour them.

Realising she was about to be charged by the Beastmen Doombull, Rachel turned her horse and fled and the Doombull caught up with the remaining knights, sending them fleeing once more before its mighty axe.

The battle was lost and Rachel kept on fleeing. Powerful though she was, she could defeat an entire Beastmen horde, almost undamaged, by herself. As her archers were eaten alive by the Jabberslythe, she galloped away, frightened for what the future held.

Most definitely for ill, the Beastmen were here. The Drak Heart and the Stygian Wood had opened and the deluge of evil had begun.