Inside the hut, the Sorcerer realise that the woman is like the creatures in the wilds, she is a Null. He skin crawls as she states that she knows why they are in this planet: the seek Gothren and his ritual. The problem is that to reach the ritual site, they must cross the Torment. Obviously, that would be almost impossible at this point, and waiting is not an option, because Irkalia also states that this could last for months or more.
Irkalia proposes that she can take the group with her into the cave where Gothren is, not only does she knows where he went before dying, but she can use her powers as a null to create a barrier that should protect the warband and allow them to reach the cave.
The player, RPing his sorcerer, asked what does she wants and how does she know this.
Irkalia responds with that she wants a favor that she will ask later, and she knows because she has been living in this planet for years and know a lot about it. To show a degree of trust, she tells the warband that Gothren didn't survive because he was attacked by a disciple of the Saint, Corban.
So the warband agree with her proposal. Irkalia goes into a room of her hut and change gear, equipping herself with a black carapace armor, two strange obsidian pistols and a strange sword.
She raises her arms to the sky, and a black but transparent bubble covers the Warband, they are protected from the souls, but the Sorcerer realise that he focus the powers of the warp inside of it.
They walk through the Torment, sometimes hearing noises of others creatures, but never being really attacked, until they finally reach the cave where Gothren died.
THE RITUAL
Inside the cavern, the warband finds the ruins of a Chaos ritual with Gothren in the middle. His ancient terminator armor raises a tome in his hands. What truly makes the scene chilling is the dozens of guardsmen bodies on the ground. Irkalia explains that these are the battlegroup of Corban, one of the Saint's primary disciples, he was hunting Gothren to end his life once and for all, but was killed by the sorcerer before having the chance to finish this work. She is not certain what happened, but Gothren died before finishing his ritual.
Numasar walks into the chaos ruin and analyses the situation, quickly he understands that Gothren was using the world's own Torment of Souls to power the Tome. He knows how to finish the ritual and then use it for himself.
Before taking position inside the cave, Gothren summon two allies from his warband. He opens a wound into reality, and from it a hodded pistoleer and a horned swordsman come forth. Phercy the Chosen and Baudnar the Malefic stand ready to fight for Numasar.
Numasar explained that to finish his spell he must focus enterily into it. So he needs the Warband to protect him. The Warband understands, but strangely Irkalia positions herself to also fight. Numasar makes no comment out of this, for he knows that if she tries something the others would kill her just as quickly.
As the ritual began, a pillar of souls descended unto the Tome, fueling with pure warp power, but some souls diverted from it and spilled and possessed the bodies of the dead guardsman, raising them. These creatures not only were akin to deamons, but they also still retained some of the skill and operational knowledge of the weapons and gear that this bodies used it once.
As they raised, as they walked, they attacked the Warband and Irkalia.
Khazar the Putrid, being the indomitable and resilient warrior he is, stayed closed to the sorcerer, using his body to shield him.
Valnir the Silvequick as his name states, moved from point to point of the cavern, seeking the soldiers that the rest of the Warband would take too much time to kill, using his sword to decimate enemies with lightning fast precision.
Phercy and Irkalia, the two gunslingers killed enemies left and right, though the marine was skillful with his pistols, he realised that the strange null woman had almost perfect aim with her strange pistols. Not only that, but the possessed guardsmen seem to die easier to her bullets.
The fight began taking it's toll. Something was wrong with Baudnar, not only his Plasma pistol exploded twice right onto himself, once wounding him quite badly, but the possessed guardmen were surviving his attacks, and they were overwhelming his position.
Phercy was also in dire straits, getting shot by plasma and taking many serious wounds as the battle went forth. As many as he killed, he would still get hurt.
Irkalia was doing well by herself, her shots killing every guardsmen she took aim at. Even though they had the strenght of the Neverborn, she could hit and wound them easily enough to kill them.
The Putrid jumped from the Ritual base as Baudnar fell onto the ground wounded.
Vaulnir did the same, supporting the other part of the same side.
When the body of Corban was raised from the ground, Irkalia yelled to the Numasar:
"Sorcerer! Fulfill your promise! I will be the one to kill Corban!"
The psyker didn't even looked at her, he just gave a nod that made the warband to understand that this was her due.
With her obsidian pistols she managed to wound Corban, but his possessed form broke from reality for a few seconds allowing the corpse to stand. Seeing this, Irkalia removed an Eclipse blade from her scabbard and charged the Saint's disciple. In a duel, they fought, the corpse removed his own sword a twin blade of the same aspect of Irkalia's but the color of dawn. Though she could hurt the corpse easily, the Saint's disciple was too strong and struck her down with his weapon. She fell on the ground, and the corpse began walking towards the sorcerer.
Through sheer willpower, Irkalia raised herself from death, shot Corban on the back and the corpse fell on the ground. She moved to another target, at first satisfied, but then with a quick glance she realised that the disciple was walking again. Irkalia charged once more, but once again was struck down.
Numasar finished the Tome, but instead of using it, he charged Corban and challenge it to a duel. It laste a few seconds, the sheer aspect of the neverborn allowing it to survive the worst of the trauma, but finally dying.
Though the ritual was finished, the toll of bodies were clear. Phercy and Baudnar didn't survive the battle, and Irkalia herself though seeminly struck down simply disappeared from sight. The sorcerer renamed the relic as The Tome of Numasar, for he would not wield such a weapon with the name of a fallen warlord that could not even face a few guardmen and a zealot.
Ran
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