The Tangled Depths - part iii, The Bloodfane

Old Mudgob had run for most of the night, ranting incomprehensibly and chasing the black smoke they had inadvertently released from the Hidden Vault. Deeper and deeper into the woods, with the rest of the crew close behind him. The crew of the Swordfysh followed without a second thought - it seemed perfectly natural to them in that moment.

They did not notice the clawing branches that dragged at them as they rushed past. They did not notice the encroaching darkness that enveloped them. They did not tire, or hunger, or even think about where they were going.

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The Swordfyshes burst out of the trees into a wide clearing around a small village.

The 'smoke' hung in the air around the tower of the tallest building. As dawn broke the light seemed to become red, unnaturally and ominously red, even though the sky was heavy with black thunderous clouds.

A Bloodbound warband were gathered around the tower, frothing blood-worshipping madmen, who had apparently been waiting for the orruks' arrival.

After a momentary pause when they each first saw the other warband, the pirates and Bloodbound fell upon one-another in a frenzy of violent blood-letting.

The Swordfyshes laid into the worshipers of the Blood God with toothy grins on their faces!

Old Mudgob, Lugger and Docker Goff pounced on a small group of Bloodreavers who were accompanied by a Fatemaster as they tried to make their way around the left side of the tower - but the sorcerer recoiled from the orruks, on a daemonic flying disk.

Krashhart, Leeway, Yardarm and Hook fought almost shoulder-to-shoulder, jammed into an alleyway between the smoke-wrapped tower and a cluster of mausoleums. The bottleneck funnelled the Bloodbound toward them and the pirates used the small space to their best advantage. The pirates first took down the Bloodbound's heavily-armoured champion.

Then the leader of the Chaos warband, a Wrathmaster, charged into the fray with whirling flails. But he managed to tangle himself up in his own weapons so the pirates focused on killing all of his followers.

Old Mudgob and his group roared in triumph as the last of the Bloodreavers they faced fell, and chased after the Fatemaster as he backed around the tower; trapping him between themselves and Krashhart's mob. The Fatemaster panicked and, with a sound like distant screeching and a flash of pink-blue light, he translocated himself and the Wrathmaster far away from the village.

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As the Chaos Marauders’ blood drained into the soil around the tower the curse on the pirates lifted (for that is what it was; they could see it clearly now!)

A bell suspended in a makeshift scaffold on the roof of the tower sounded once, like a death-knell. Cold laughter echoed around the village. A hard, cold face briefly coalesced in the black smoke and it drifted away, heading west.

The Swordfyshes realised they had been manipulated - the Slann’s warnings suddenly made sense - he had been trying to stop them freeing some kind of cursed spirit from the Vault. Some of the orruks wondered if the Bloodbound might have been cursed too but it was always hard to tell with that lot.

Krashhart and Old Mudgob looked at one-another and they both knew what their next move should be: the whole crew wanted to keep following the smoke. They all wanted to get their revenge on that thing for using them.

And if there wasn't any loot to be found at least there seemed to be some good fights wherever it went. And they wanted to know what the zog was going on so, at the very least, they would be able to get a good tale to tell out of all this.

~ ⦽ ~

The Tangled Depths - part ii, The Lair of the Lizard

After finding the dogeared book containing Kurbak Sloop's scribbled notes and star-charts as they escaped from the Jade Obelisk camp the Swordfyshes spent an uncomfortable, though relatively safe, night atop a rocky outcrop. They set watches and rested as best they could. Krashhart and Old Mudgob studied Kurbak's notes.

At first light the next day they turned south-east on the heading that the notes laid out. Even though the previous day had not gone well the crew were all in high spirits - the prospect of the adventure to come, and the loot they were sure to find in the underground treasury, buoyed their mood.

When they arrived at the spot they discovered another make-shift encampment - this one was centred around the remains of a vast Megadroth skeleton.

Old Mudgob identified three possible entrances to the Vault. The Swordfyshes found all of them were guarded by a Seraphon warband, led by a Slann Starmaster.

Old Mudgob quickly worked out which entrance was the real one and the Swordfyshes closed in on it.

Docker Goff spotted an opportunity for glory and quickly explained his idea to the Shaman, who chuckled and nodded his consent to the smaller orruk's plan. Goff scuttled off toward the nearest Gnarloak.

Hook called out that there were lizardmen close at hand.

The Slann tried to stop the pirates from opening the Vault - he ranted and raged at them all the while blasting arcane magicks from a high platform. He gave a long and very dull monologue that the orruks largely ignored - something along the lines of dire warnings about an ancient evil that must not be freed. It was hard to hear the Slann over the noise of his sorcerous blasts and his followers' howls.

Yardarm, Lugger and Hook quickly took control of the Vault's entrance.

With mounting frustration the Slann tried time and again to convince them to stop; warnings, threats, bribes, even appeals to their better nature.

The sauruses threw themselves at the pirates and were cut-down one by one. Docker Goff reached the Slann's platform only to find the strange frog had floated off, down toward the Vault entrance.

Krashhart and Leeway closed in to reinforce the pirates' hold on their objective as Lugger brutally hacked down the last saurus.

The orruks just laughed at the little skinks, as they tried to crowd into the Vault's doorway under the huge Megadroth skull, Yardarm simply shoved them out of the way and sent them scampering off into the forest.

The Slann Starmaster realised his last hope of stopping them opening the Vault was now gone and he hurriedly withdrew, taking his few surviving followers to safety, as far and fast as he could.

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The pirates tumbled into the Vault, chattering excitedly and already calculating the value of the treasure they expected to find there. The dark walls and ceilings of the stone corridors and rooms were covered in geometrical patterns; carvings of zig-zags, squares within squares and oddly-aligned triangles. Stars seemed to softly sparkle on every surface; lines of light pulsed with strange unknown energy between them. The main tunnel opened out into a spacious room. The pirates stopped short, suddenly quiet and cautious. They carefully looked around the underground chamber but the only thing they could see was a large stone sarcophagus in the middle of the room.

As soon as they enthusiastically smashed open the sarcophagus a cloud of black 'smoke' rushed out. The smoke enveloped them, choking and panicking them. They fled the Vault, coughing and spluttering out into the daylight again.

The black smoke followed them out of the tunnel then suddenly seemed to gather itself up and moved off to the south-west - against the direction the wind was blowing! As they recovered and started to try and puzzle-out what had happened, and more importantly "Where has the blasted treasure gone?!", a red haze descended over the orruks’ minds. A frenzied blood-lust overwhelmed them.

Old Mudgob started babbling - unintelligible nonsense that could possibly have been an ancient language. Without warning he rushed off, following the black smoke - into the woods, deeper and deeper.

The rest of the crew followed him without a second thought - it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to do...

~ ⦽ ~