2023/02/01

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms: Cultists, Horrors, Gates.

The party awoke early to get a head start on finding the gate. Though before that could begin, Charlotte held a seminar for Kita on the intricacies of warjack maintenance. After that was complete, they asked Kita if she knew where this gate was, unfortunately she only had narrowed down the location to somewhere near the Klokhor Fortress that the party was camping within. The party had found her before she had determined any specifics. With that in mind, the party then began to brainstorm ideas for locating the gate. The first clue that they remembered was the prophecy that Hector had given about Kita's destination “The Crack in the Mountain”. Kita hadn't heard of this title, though she though figured it was one way of describing a gate. Though given the accuracy of Hector's prophecies, that further narrowed the location to being around mountains which meant that it was Northeast or Southwest of their location. The party decided that they would follow an old road that headed to the Northeast as there was more water in that direction, and water was the most important resource in the Bloodstone Marches.

As the party ventured deeper into the wastes they found evidence that there were once prospectors in the area, though their camps seemed to have been abandoned and looted. While their disappearance was of minor note, there were all sorts of reasons that a prospector would abandon their claim out here, from the river not yielding any gold to the wildlife, to the prospector wanting a safer profession. As for the looting, the party noted that if they were in different circumstances they would look into salvaging anything of value from the camps. Despite the number of benign reasons for the lack of prospectors in the area, the party did stay on alert as there was the possibility that it was connected to the cult. The party followed a small river down a valley between two small mountains; as they traveled, they began to feel a pit deep in their stomachs, which was reminiscent of those experienced with large conglomerations of Infernals. With that feeling as a sign that they were closing in on their target, the party continued on. Further up the river, the sound of pickaxes echoed around the valley, though they eventually fell silent, which concerned the party that they had been discovered. There was nothing to do about that however, and thus the party pressed forward and eventually came across the gate.

The gate was a pair of black stone pillars that had been carved into the mountainside, with blood red lines of power running up their faces, and the horrible glyphs of Nonokrion. As the party got closer they saw that they had arrived just after a ritual to consecrate the gate to their Infernal masters, inside a large magic circle were the corpses of what looked like captured prospectors. The deaths of the prospectors had given power to the gate and stretched across its threshold was a deep shadow that led to places far beyond Caen or Urcaen. Still around the Gate were the members of the cult, which seemed to be led by a singular infernalist, and two of his acolytes. The head cultist addressed the party and after some insults were leveled, the battle for the gate begun. The infernalist proved that the umbral guardians weren't the only infernal creature at his command and with but a wave called forth a true horror. The cult was empowered by their devotion to their dark masters and proved rather tough for the party and Kita, with the head infernalist proving quite adept at esoteric forms of teleportation, placing Charlotte in the way of Abe's swings and then leaving a fireball as he teleported away from the party. The party was fighting not just for themselves but to also delay whatever plans that the gate was involved in. And with a large amount of effort on their part they defeated the cult.

The party's problems with the gate didn't end with the deaths of the cultists. The departure of their marked souls seemed to have empowered the gate further, and the land itself roiled like the sea during a storm. During this time the party felt a presence observing them from outside reality. The presence seemed to be unable or unwilling to cross over at this time, though it tempted the party, offering to help them raise Five Fingers to the mightiest nation ever seen in Western Immoren. The party had already heard a variation on this pitch from the Ossander brothers and thus with some remembered stories about the destruction of other gates during the claiming began to attack the pillars. The presence which had proclaimed itself as the Voice of the Unheard, tried one last attempt, telling the party that disaster loomed for Five Fingers. This also wasn't particularly news to the party, though when the entity elaborated that the danger wasn't one of mortal hands was slightly more concerning. With a little time, the pillars began to collapse on themselves and with a final chuckle the voice told the party that they amused it and it would pay close attention to their future trials. Shakes continued to attack the now destroyed gate until Charlotte commanded him to stand down. Xavier was able to place the title that the infernal had given them, The Voice of the Unheard is a greater infernal that seemed to be involved of times of revolution and upheaval. That however was a later them problem, and they did eventually need to get back to Five Fingers, so the party looted the cult's camp and then began to make their way back home.