Two men were standing beside one of the comets, with no signs of other living beings anywhere to be seen. One of the men was walking down to the celestial orb, while the other stood on the edge of the crater, keeping watch.
"Will one comet be enough?" Gunmaster Wolfgang Fersen called down.
"How much power can the artefact bear?"
"I... believe one will suffice, as... the structure of the key doesn't seem to... be meant for enormous amounts of arcane energies," Battlemage Ernest Rosengart replied as he carefully descended into the crater.
Upon reaching the bottom, he placed the ornate key on top of the glowing half-buried comet. The surface of the celestial orb began glowing with golden light under the touch of the artefact. Ernest took his grimoire from his belt and began reciting a spell. Fersen scratched the back of his neck with his repeater, gazing around the swamps around them. This was the critical moment in which the wizard could not be disturbed.
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| Puffington Marshal Emmerich Heilman inspecting the Breuer's Regiment before they march off to war |
As Rosengart's incantation reached its climax, there was a deep rumble coming from inside the fallen comet. Grey skies flashed with lighting and the golden glow of the orb grew stronger, the bright light creeping up from the crater and hiding Rosengart from sight. The ground shook and soil started to trickle down into the crater.
Ernest resisted the urge to cover his eyes from the brightness. He had to monitor the process. The key set upon the comet began sinking in, pressing deeper and deeper into the orb. Soon it was out of sight. The golden light grew stronger by the moment, up until the moment when the rumble suddenly stopped and there was an eerie silence for a heartbeat. Then the comet cracked open.
Rosengart blinked his eyes. The comet had been hollowed out, its cracked shell now laying in pieces before him at the bottom of the crater. In the middle of it lay the key, perfectly intact and with a new-found golden shine. Ernest picked it up and held it against the grey vault of the sky, inspecting it.
"Yes... it now has the power to show us the way... the way to the dungeon in which lies our journey's destination," he declared. Above him, from the edge of the crater, the Gunmaster called down a reply.
"Great! Now let's get back to camp and mobilize the regiment. This is going to be a tough one."
- - - - -
Only two days after the empowering of the key, a new freeguilder force was on the march. An endless column of men clad in red-and-white livery marching through the Hyshian plains, approaching the site their artefact had directed them to. At the head of the column marched Fersen and Rosengart, with the key hanging on a length of chain around the wizard's neck.
Accompanying the scholars were two officers from Averbury, General Erhardt Breuer and Captain Roland Blauenlaufel. These two gentlemen had been assigned to lead Breuer's Regiment to the arcane dungeons that the scholars had now chased for weeks.
Captain Roland walked with the men, but General Breuer rode at the head of the column along with the scholars.
"So, what is it that we expect to find in these dungeons? I understood there's something inside we need?" Erhardt enquired, his demeanour casual and easy like a man who'd faked confidence in war more than once.
"There... should be a Slaaneshi daemon prince inside this magical cell, a.... creature which we seek to slay," Rosengart replied. The General grew stiff.
"A WHAT now?"
"A daemon, my dear General," Fersen chimed in.
"A fearsome entity that we have agreed to get rid of, in order to make Averbury and the entirety of the Puffington Empire a safer place to live."
"I was enlisted to this campaign as an instructor to a campful of raw recruits, to drill them in the Averbury forests with a training that would turn them into real soldiers. Not once did anyone mention that it'd all end up with one company decimated and all the rest marching out for another bloodbath," Breuer complained.
Fersen rolled his eyes.
"General, with all due respect, I and Rosengart know what we're doing. The daemon has been imprisoned for centuries, it is not strong enough to resist us. What we need the troops for are the many enemies we expect to guard the site once we get there. Once the guardians are defeated, the daemon itself will be swiftly dealt with by our dear wizard right here," he said, nodding towards Rosengart.
General Breuer twisted his lips in thought.
"I knew it was a dangerous task when you came asking for a company of soldiers. I gave you Wesley's, and now they've been retired back into the city for the horrible casualties they sustained on your quest. Now I'm marching five more companies into the same peril. I hope you have a good explanation to the City Court once we return to Averbury after this."
Captain Wesley's company had indeed refused to join the rest of the regiment on their march, so they had been given orders to return to the city. Their participation in the campaign was now over. The sudden return of one badly battered company had earned Breuer's Regiment a visit from Emmerich Heilman, the Puffington Marshal, who had arrived at the camp atop his grey-feathered griffon last night. The marshal had demanded explanation, and after hours of intense debate he had finally abated and given Breuer's men clearance to join the scholars on the journey to the dungeons. The deal had been simple but strict: the soldiers of Averbury would fight to clear the way to the dungeons, but everything else was up to the Gunmaster and Battlemage themselves.
With a clearance from the marshal and a regiment from the general, Fersen and Rosengart would finally bring an end to the imprisoned Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, just like Zul'Nok the Traveller had tasked them to do so many weeks ago.
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