The Fifth Crusade
For over a century, the demon-haunted wasteland of the Worldwound has bled into the world of mortals. As the magical Wardstones that hold back the tide begin to flicker and fail, a new generation of crusaders must take up the sword. But this war requires more than steel; it requires the power of Myths.
Paladin / Wizard
Monk / Paladin
Inquisitor / Rogue
Paladin / Oracle
Intelligence Report: Fifth Crusade Geographic Survey
The Shield of Mendev. Current location of the Wardstone.
The epicenter of the rift. Entry forbidden to all mortal souls.
Stretching from the Lake of Mists and Veils to the Sarkoris Scar, Mendev stands as the final bulwark against the Abyss.
A vital supply vein now choked by the filth of the Worldwound.
"The geography changes as the rift exhales. Do not trust the old maps. The land itself is a lie."
The Worldwound
Session XI — Sword of Valor
The army halted at the Ahari Gorge — a dry riverbed seething with Vescavor swarms too vast to march through. Five went down beneath the riverbed and killed the queen at the heart of the nest. Behind her, an Abyssal rift — a tear in reality — spat vrock demons until the elf wizard Aravashnial revealed what he had been all along: a Riftwarden, with power over the movement of demons, and sealed it shut on the last of them. Topside, the company's scout Aron Kir lay near death, knifed from behind by an attacker no one saw — the saboteur again. A suspicion now has a shape but no proof. And a sealed satchel from Queen Galfrey yielded the reconstructed blueprints of Citadel Drezen, signed seventy years ago by dwarves whose names the two Stonevein cousins know better than any: their own parents. The army stands within striking distance of Drezen. The assault goes in at dawn.
Fallen Guardian
Silver Dragon · Protector of Kenabres
“Down in the dark beneath the riverbed, when Korroc stepped off the edge, it was her light that caught him — silver blooming from the scale at his belt, carrying him slow and stately into the nest. Her last will, spent again in the deep. Every time a scale wakes, a little more of the dragon's dying gift is given away. And every time, she is still with them.”
The Painter’s Fury
Paladin / Wizard
Opened the queen-fight with a fireball turned to killing ice — a white starburst of frost that broke the swarms all at once. Turned a stunned ally invisible under vrock claws. Drove Radiance home in three flashing thrusts, the holy glaive blazing where it bit. Blinked three companions through solid stone to the surface. Now carries the citadel’s blueprints folded deep in his spellbook — “people don’t lightly meddle with a wizard’s spellbook.”
The Thunder’s Reach
Monk / Paladin
Spotted the one silent tunnel-mouth — the way in — while the others read only noise. Crossed the treacherous cavern with a running kick the instant the ice erupted. Took the queen’s acid full in the chest and did not fall. Beat two vrocks down with holy-smite-lit fists, celestial fire along every knuckle. Reached the dying scout first and brought him back with his own hands.
Shadow of Judgment
Inquisitor / Rogue
Scouted point through the whole nest, reading floors no one else could. Was moving before the ice even burst — the queen died on two daggers she never saw. Stunned and bleeding under a vrock’s talons, and rose. Read the drag-trail and the gnome-sized footprints where the scout was taken. Slammed the evidence on the war-council table — “We have a traitor amongst us” — then read his own father’s handwriting on a seventy-year-old letter.
The Wall That Walks
Paladin / Oracle
Drifted down into the nest on dragonscale light to end an argument, hammer across his back. Planted himself as a wall between the wizard and the demons and rooted into the stone. Flung mythic protection across the whole cave to his stunned cousin, turning a talon aside on nothing. His life-bond drank the others’ wounds the whole fight. And he heard his own parents’ names read off a seventy-year-old letter.
Current Status
Striking distance · A traitor still unnamed
The gorge is cleared. The queen is dead, the swarm scattered, the Abyssal rift sealed by a wizard who turned out to be far more than he seemed. And in a sealed satchel from the Queen herself lie the reconstructed blueprints of Citadel Drezen — the way in, drawn seventy years ago by dwarven hands the two Stoneveins would know anywhere. The army stands within striking distance, and the assault goes in at dawn. But a saboteur still moves unfound inside the company. Suspicion has a shape now — small, quick, quiet — and no proof at all.
Retrieving field report...
A visual record of the Worldwound and the souls caught in its wake
End of Record
