[actual play] Iron Kingdoms - Adamantine Will

Episode 1 : The Beast of Gedon - Part 4

Darcey ran from the Waal manor house and mounted her horse, urging the beast back to the town. She would get Gregore and then together join the others. She only hoped that they would reach them in time.

Out in the woods, Brother Eckert and Hurst, along with their group of a dozen town watchmen, peered through the gloom of the trees. They could see the hunting lodge and the that there were a few guards, hunters, circling it. The building was 3 stories tall, and was old and covered in vines and creepers. A little light escaped the windows, and at the front there was a balcony from which two men kept watch.

Hurst sneaked forward to the stable, and hid in a haystack. He had to be careful of not leaving foot prints in the snow, and to stop the steam from rising from his mask. He watched as one of the guards walked by. Hurst shifted, and his leather armour creaked. The guard turned, and with sword drawn and pistol ready called out ‘Who’s there? Show your self.’

Eckert had sent half of the watch about the other side of the lodge, and seeing the trouble he threw a stone to distract the guard. It didn’t work.

There was a bang, and the guard stumbled back from the stable, gripping his shoulder. He fired back, hitting nothing but wood and stone. The fight had begun.

In short order the fight had begun. Under a hail of gunfire Hurst and Eckert ran forward to the main doors of the manor house. The fight had also got the attention of Darcey and Gregore, who heard the gunshot echo through the forest. They arrived in the clearing and dismounted, with Darcey sprinting to aid her fellows. Gregore also stormed forward, with musket shot impacting his plate armour. But it held, for Brother Eckert had invoked the holy protection of Morrow.

The group burst in through the doors. Before them was a main hall and sweeping staircase. Musket shot fired down upon them, splintering wood and stone. Eckert launched forth at the nearest man, and the two parried and circled, as the priest punished him with blows from his staff of office. Hurst and Darcey traded shot with another, with Hurst rushing forward with his dagger, pressing it into the man’s chest. There were still huntsman upon on the balcony, firing down upon them. Gregore stormed forward, letting out a thunderous call, a challenge for one on one combat. He stood at the top of the staircase, and hammer his sword against his breast plate. The hunters, fearful of this warrior, turned their guns upon him. In short order the huntsmen were defeated. Eckert tended to Hursts wounds, with the Telgesh runes blossoming out from Eckert’s hands.

There was a howl from above, from somewhere in the room above. The floorboards creaked and something padded down the steps. Gregore stood his ground as the beast charged him, smashing him back. The twin heads of the Argus snapped at him, clamping on steel and flesh. Gregore smashed down with his great sword, hammering the beast at it’s legs with controlled strikes. Darcey also waded into the fight, swinging her mace into it’s head. The Argus fought back, with one head savagely crunching down on Darcey’s arm. Gregore saw his chance and pummeled the beast again and again, and finally slew the creature. Eckert turned his healing touch to Darcey, stabilizing the bleeding.

With the beast dead Hurst took some fur samples and then together the group headed upstairs. There in the room was the Alderman’s daughter, bound and gagged. She was in the centre of a circle of candles. Gregore rushed forward to release her, but Darcey and Hurst were quicker witted, and spotted her draw a dagger from her robes, and before she had a chance to slide it between the plate armour of Gregore’s Darcey had already fired her pistol at the girl, maiming her arm.

Gregore rebound the girl, and from above, in the loft, they saw the gleaming mask of Brother Valenor. He explained that they were too late to save anyone now. The priest climbed down the ladder, and presented his hands for binding. He whispered to Gregore, his tainted words effecting his mind, suggesting that the others were liars and the real heretics. But Greogre resisted and they removed his mask and gagged him.

Outside, the fight over, and the copies of the Red Talon now a burning pile, and the printing press ruined, the group reflected on what had happened. The priest had surely gone mad and was driven by his jealousy of his brother, and had found a way, possibly similar to that used by the druids, to change his brother into the creature. The sister was also insane. The two would be taken to Corvis and there they would be imprisoned and more than likely executed for their crimes. The captain of the soldiers who had been trying to hunt the beast, he was now in charge of the town for the time being. In the night sky the moons of Calder and Laris shown down. The red moon casting a baleful light over the lodge.