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: The Drezen Approach
The seat of the city's command. Still enemy-held. The war ends here.
Cleared. Four chained beasts meant to drop the span are dead; engineers shore the piers. The road west is open.
Some two hundred prisoners freed. Many now carry bows for the crusade.
Taken and held. Paradise Hill sealed at its back — nothing reaches the hill now but wings or magic.
The army at the Ahari's south edge, within sight of the citadel's silhouette. The next step is the last one.
The curse is broken and the tomb re-hallowed. The dead of the First Crusade sleep clean at last.
Seventy-five years in demon hands. The citadel is not a target in the war — it is the war. Everything else is the road to its gate.
The dry riverbed that carried the army unseen to Drezen's edge. Its crossing was rigged to fall — four demon-fused beasts chained to the piers as living demolition. They are dead, the chains are broken, and the army now camps at the span's south edge while engineers make it fit to carry a crusade.
"The thing we killed at the bridge was too strong for its own skin. Whatever power woke in our four at Kenabres — the enemy has found a version of its own."
The Worldwound
Session XIII — Sword of Valor
The vote went around the fire and ended on Korroc, who would not lock the company in a tie: the cemetery first. Thane walked out of the arguing and into the dark to scout ahead — and found, with Nageru shadowing him, something worse along the way: four huge demon-fused beasts chained to the piers of Ahari Bridge, living demolition waiting for the order to pull the crusade's road down into the riverbed. At dawn the four broke the cemetery's curse — ghouls in the antechamber, a winged horror feeding in the dark, and a desecrated mausoleum of Iomedae that Caleth's quiet unmaking turned back to hallowed ground. Then the bridge: handlers dropped before they could shout, a caster's fireball returned to him as ice, every chain shattered off the piers by the adamantine hammer. And then it came down out of the north sky — a three-headed thing, snow leopard and white dragon and mountain goat, breathing a storm of cutting ice that nearly finished Korroc and left Caleth a breath from the dark before daggers from nowhere ended it. By evening the army stood camped at the Ahari's south edge, engineers shoring the span. And Aravashnial gave the day its dread: the three-headed beast was enhanced — in the same way the stone changed the four. The enemy is making mythic things of its own.
Fallen Guardian
Silver Dragon · Protector of Kenabres
“She never lived to see Drezen. But the crusade she died for stands now at the Ahari with the citadel in open sight, and the four she pulled from the sky are twice what they were when she saved them. Her scales slept quiet at their belts through the whole of the bridge — unspent, patient. Some gifts keep their own counsel about when they will be needed.”
The Painter’s Fury
Paladin / Wizard
Put lightning through a ghoul at the range of a caress, then unmade a tomb’s desecration with a quiet incantation — hallowed ground handed back to Iomedae. Took an enemy caster’s own fireball, folded it inside out, and returned it as a flower of ice across the bridge deck. Threw a ward of warmth over every friend he could see when the chimera breathed. Was dragged to the very edge of the dark by the dragon head’s bite — and walked back into camp within the hour, straight as a spear. “Damn, that hurt.”
The Thunder’s Reach
Monk / Paladin
Followed Thane into the dark without being asked, and read the chained beasts for what they were — living demolition. Caught a crossbow bolt out of the air and returned it through its owner. And when the chimera’s ice put Korroc halfway to his knees and the dragon head bit down, the still water finally broke: fists lit with holy fire, a leap across the channel, and the first time any of them had ever heard him raise his voice — one word. “NO!” He was first to fallen Caleth, grace ready in both hands.
Shadow of Judgment
Inquisitor / Rogue
Walked out of a council that kept talking and went to read the ground himself — the chained beasts were found because he would not wait. Picked both locks of the cursed mausoleum (“Big doors, common lock”) and kept the door while the paladins cleaned, a watchman’s verse of the same prayer. Unseen through the whole of the bridge fight — and when the chimera reared over fallen Caleth, mother’s knife and father’s found the one seam where its three lives ran together. It died mid-scream.
The Wall That Walks
Paladin / Oracle
Broke the war-council deadlock by voting against his own argument — “Cemetery. I won’t lock us up.” Shattered every chain off the Ahari’s piers with the adamantine hammer. Took the chimera’s winter twice as deep as any of them — a child of the forge, and cold finds him the way water finds a crack — and let go of the life-link rather than fall, standing alone in his own body for the first time in days. Rooted into the stone, took three heads on his shield, and was still standing when it died.
Current Status
The Ahari cleared · The citadel in sight
The cemetery's curse is broken, and the dead of the First Crusade sleep clean. Ahari Bridge stands — its four chained engines dead, its chains shattered, its strained piers in the engineers' hands — and the army camps at its south edge with the citadel's silhouette on the sky ahead. The four came out of the day changed again: the power that woke in them at Kenabres has deepened. So has the dread that answers it. The three-headed thing they killed at the bridge was enhanced the way the stone enhanced them — the enemy is making mythic things of its own. And the saboteur in the company remains unproven, unnamed, and loose.
Retrieving field report...
A visual record of the Worldwound and the souls caught in its wake
End of Record
