The Story So Far

Act III Results:

[THE WAR ON LAND – ACT III] – The Ravenous Void – EVIL WIN
[THE WAR AT SEA – ACT III] – Race for the Iceblood Fjord – GOOD WIN
[EVIL GENERAL’S CHOICE] – The Twilight Kin decide to send resources to the Iceblood Coast.

Act II Results:

[THE WAR ON LAND – ACT II] – The Fight For The Ice Mountains – EVIL WIN
[THE WAR AT SEA – ACT II] – The Battle of Brokenwall – GOOD WIN
[GOOD GENERAL’S CHOICE] – The expeditionary forces decided to delay at the border between the Mammoth Steppe and the Winterlands to rest their troops.

Act I Results:

[THE WAR ON LAND, FIRST BLOOD] - The Battle of Ygrituul Valley – EVIL WIN
[EVIL GENERAL’S CHOICE] – The Nightstalkers decided they would follow the energy streams west, sparing Chill
[THE WAR ON LAND - ACT I] - The Long March North – GOOD WIN
[THE WAR AT SEA - ACT I] - Hunting On The Infant Sea – GOOD WIN

Epilogue

Read On Cold Tides

Read Landfall

Without the protection of their heavy escort, the Twilight Kin fleet continued north toward the Iceblood Coast, harried, and pursued by allied Basilean, Dwarven, and Elven vessels. Slowly being caught and picked off by long-range cannons, it became clear that the Twilight Kin would not reach the Iceblood Fjord and would have to instead head in towards the coast. Fortunately, the intervention of war machines from the clifftops helped turn away their pursuers, and they were able to safely make landfall and disembark.

On land, the Void-cage network was mostly disabled in the high ground around the Ice Mountains, and the depleted amounts of energy meant that the Twilight Kin’s goal of a permanent link through the Void between the Winterlands and the Pit of Despair was foiled. A temporary Void-gate was all that could be achieved, proving sufficient to bring their vanguard into the north but with no hope of reinforcements, supplies, or the building materials that were ready to accompany and support them for a full-blown invasion.

The Nightstalker hordes attracted by the Void-energy to the fjords scattered before they could be captured and bound by Lord Mikayel. For her failure, La’theal Bleakheart was punished with an ordeal in the Void and banished there before the portal closed.

The Twilight Kin now face a serious upward struggle in the North and a very different kind of war if they wish to capture Prince Talannar’s secret power.

Meanwhile, a lone surviving Abyssal Dwarf vessel from the Battle of Brokenwall returns to a friendly harbour, carrying news of betrayal…

The State of Pannithor

The Infant Sea - The Toll Forts of the Golden Horn remain damaged, and more of the Basilean navy will be tasked with controlling the passage between the Infant Sea and the Low Sea of Suan while they rebuild.
The Endless Sea - The Abyssal Dwarf fleet was sunk at Brokenwall, but a surviving vessel has escaped with word of the Twilight Kin betrayal.
The Ice Mountains
- The City of Blackridge is still held by the Orcs.
- The Void-cage network has been dismantled with all cages now either closed, destroyed, or depleted.
The City of Chill
- Though the City of Chill was spared, the Northern Alliance has taken heavy losses to its long-range patrols and aerial capability. Prince Talannar’s ability to range far and wide has been depleted, and he may need to rely more on his allies in the future.
- The City of Chill’s Watch Line is broken in the South-East, leaving them vulnerable to future attacks until it can be repaired.
The Iceblood Coast - The Twilight Kin army in the Winterlands is cut off from all supplies and reinforcements in a distant and hostile environment. Rather than a full-blown invasion to capture Talannar’s secret power, they will instead have to begin a campaign of sabotage, assassinations, and psychological warfare against their enemy.
The Iceblood Fjord
- The Twilight Kin have been thwarted from setting up a fortress on the Iceblood Fjord, a stone’s throw from Chill, with the ability to move their troops via land, sea, and the Void.
- The enormous horde of Nightstalkers at the fjords moved on once the void-cages were exhausted and closed. This was also before they could be located and bound by Lord Mikayel, and have become a new roaming threat in the region.
The Void - The Twilight Kin were prevented from opening a permanent link through the void between the Winterlands and the Pit of Despair. As punishment for her failure, La’theal Bleakheart has been sent into the Void until she completes a strange task.

Act III

The Iceblood Coast

Read The Path to Discovery

Read The Battle Within

[The War On Land - Act III]

The decision to rest at the northern border of the Mammoth Steppe was a mixed blessing. Without fresh opposition in the region, the forces of evil were able to destroy most of the Northern Alliance patrols recalled to the City of Chill to bolster defences.

The orc-held city of Blackridge also had time to send out raiding parties, whittling away the expeditionary forces in surprise attacks amid the difficult and cold conditions.

However, the extra days on the Mammoth Steppe did bring benefits. Morale was boosted for the grave task ahead, more ogre mercenaries were recruited to join the war effort, and the refreshed troops were physically ready to make a breakthrough discovery.

Well-fed and with renewed strength, a vanguard force managed to secure a vital ridge in the Ice Mountains from which they could see strange energy streaming through the air. They deduced that these streams were coming from the void-cages dotted across the ridges, hillsides and peaks. They could only be part of the evil unfolding in the Winterlands, and their next task would be to shut them down…

Meanwhile the growing Nightstalker horde broke through the Chill watch line, causing great damage in the process. Prepared for a protracted siege, the defenders of the Northern Alliance city awaited a fierce and tiring battle.

Instead, they were both relieved and distressed when the horde continued its journey west, sparing the city. If feasting on the greatest concentration of souls, life and power in the North was not the desire of the Nightstalker horde, then what could possibly be taking place?

[The War At Sea - Act III]

The forces of good continued their mastery of the Infant Sea, with the sinister armada of Twilight Kin vessels (and their Abyssal Dwarf heavy escort) taking a battering at the Brokenwall Islands. The forts of the elven Sea Kindred mobilised an impressive navy from the competing elven Houses that now occupy these former mountain-tops. Scores of graceful Leafblade warships and lethal Storm Chaser catamarans sliced through the rough waters into battle with their foes.

Though there was no time to call more ships from Therennia Adar, the House of the Morning Gull and House Nightspray both delivered decisive damage to the Abyssal Dwarf ships escorting the Twilight Kin corsair fleet. The killing blow was struck, appropriately, by the arrival of the Basilean navy that had stalwartly pursued their enemy since the attack on the Golden Horn.

The Abyssal Dwarf command vessel, a Hellfane-class battleship, was sunk by sustained cannonshot to the stern, well before it could yaw to protect its rear armour from the raking fire. With the fleet now leaderless, and the other Iron Captains all immediately attempting to fill the sudden power vacuum, they quickly fell into disarray. Each Abyssal Dwarf vessel now faced an individual choice to fight, or flee and hope for their survival. Stubborn to the last, most of them went to the bottom of the Infant Sea.

As the chaos and destruction unfolded, only the Twilight Kin fleet escaped between Tor Lihrian and Ulathil – the widest and least defensible channel of the Brokenwall Isles. Now out onto the Endless Sea, not one of their vessels had remained to assist their former allies. Either they had always intended that the sons and daughters of Tragar would be sacrificed in this way, or their true mission was worth incurring the lasting wrath of the Abyssal Dwarfs.

Whichever may be true, the Twilight Kin had to be caught and stopped. Without having to match the speed of the Abyssal Dwarfs they were faster now as they turned sharply, heading north towards the Iceblood Coast…

Act II

The Growing Threat

Read Starved of Aid

Read The Long Road Home

[The War On Land - Act II]

The sacrifice of the Frostclaw Riders will be passed down in songs and legends. They gave their lives valiantly, buying precious extra time for friends of the Northern Alliance (or at least their allies of convenience) to reach the Winterlands.

The Nightstalker forces have successfully crossed the Ygrituul river, and are following the Nordgared Pass. The hordes grow every day, as new void-cages spring to life in the frozen foothills and mountains. Soon the growing mass of horrors will reach the Watch Line, a network of towers and outposts that acts as the city’s first line of defence.

Prince Talannar has dispatched Frostclaw messengers to recall all his ranging patrols to Chill, ready to mount their defence. Provisions are stocked, the gates are reinforced, and defenders mass upon the walls. They watch the horizon, and wait.

Meanwhile, the great and good of Pannithor have surged decisively north overpowering many of the harrying attacks and Nightstalker ambushes laid in place by Twilight Kin agents. They also see off the opportunistic assaults by other factions, seeking to make the most of the upheaval caused by the departure of large armies.

These large expeditions of noble warriors are now successfully massed on the northern border of the Mammoth Steppe – ready to enter the Winterlands and begin hunting down the forces of evil across strategically important valleys, treacherous ridges, and mighty peaks.

[The War At Sea - Act II]

The Basilean Navy has now recovered from their initial shock of the attack on the Golden Horn toll forts. Their naval forces have been assembled, and are deploying in strength onto the Infant Sea.

Meanwhile, the other noble navies of Pannithor are also dispatching their ships to intercept the strange and wicked alliance that now threatens the region - Twilight Kin sailing alongside the Abyssal Dwarf Iron Captains.

Other sinister forces seek to capitalize on the instability, but skilled fleetmasters have seen off these feeble attacks. Now, it is a race – can these strange allies be caught, and held to account for their crimes against Basilea?

The Twilight Kin and Abyssal Dwarfs have made good pace and are now approaching the Brokenwall Islands. These Elven sea-forts are built upon the tops of submerged mountains, and the perfect place to bring this rogue force to a watery grave…

Act I

Read the War on Land Fiction

Read the War at Sea Fiction

An Emerging Threat

[The War On Land - Act I]

Dark minds scheme, frozen winds moan, the void crackles, and a new era of war begins.

Wicked devices known as void-cages are erupting into life throughout the Winterlands, and as far south as the Great Plains of the Mammoth Steppe. These devices allow the horrors of the Void to bleed through into Pannithor, and hordes of Nightstalkers now pour out into the frozen North. The Northern Alliance, a free people and defenders of a secret hope, find themselves in great peril and temporarily cut off from potential allies.

Prince Talannar instantly realising the scale of this new threat, dispatches messengers to call for aid. Over the coming days a great host of his precious Frostclaw Riders (mounted on their great ravens) are recalled from their long-range patrols and assembled at the city of Chill. It will be their duty to delay the nightmarish enemy at a natural chokepoint: the Ygrituul Valley.

It is a desperate act, and one that these elite riders may never return from. As they buy time with their lives, will this force be able to blunt the enemy advance, or even divert them away their home city?

Meanwhile, Frostclaw-mounted messengers arrive in the territories of the great and the good of Pannithor, urging them to head North. If they can be persuaded to suspend their rivalries and unite against a common enemy, there is still a chance to prevail. After all, once the Nightstalkers have consumed all they can find in the frozen wastes these great hordes will surely roam south in search of fresh meat and souls ripe for the taking…

As events unfold, Kings and leaders of Pannithor sit uneasily on their thrones. These void-cages seem strategically placed, and their opening both sudden and synchronised. Some dark plan is at work, and the Nightstalkers cannot have been acting alone…

[The War At Sea - Act I]

These are strange times, and the balance of power is shifting on the oceans of Pannithor.

The Twilight Kin have entered into an uneasy alliance with the Abyssal Dwarfs, helping the sons and daughters of Tragar to break through the mighty toll forts of the Golden Horn and out into the Infant Sea for the first time. In exchange a great Abyssal Dwarf fleet is now escorting Twilight Kin ships west, pursued by a chagrined and wrathful Basilean navy.

Aboard the Twilight Kin vessels a strange gem is being carefully guarded – the Shadowheart. What is its purpose and destination? And could this huge show of naval power really have been assembled just to transport such a small thing?

Whatever is unfolding here cannot be good for Pannithor, and the other navies of the Infant Sea hastily chart their own courses to either intercept this sinister armada, or twist events to their own advantage…

Who are the Northern Alliance?

Deep in the Ice Mountains, on the frozen edge of the range known as the Howling Peaks, there stands an impossibility. It is enchanting, awesome, dominating and incomprehensible in equal measure. Bridging a high valley between mighty sentinels of rock, stands the implausible city of Chill.

Tribes of northmen have bent their knee before Talannar’s throne, as have snow trolls and even dispossessed dwarfs. Word of his realm has attracted elves who have cut their ties to the old world and sought new glories as part of this young nation.

The disenfranchised and the lost find a welcoming home within the walls of Chill. It is a rallying point for those that wish to unite for something greater, and a bastion against the darkness in the world.

WHAT ARE THE NIGHTSTALKERS?

Since the creation of the Abyss, the veil between realities has thinned. Behind the veil lies every nightmare, fear, and terror ever conjured by mortal minds and worse. Where the fabric of reality thins, these ravening entities gather like moths to a candle flame, looking for ingress into the physical world. Terror given form, the Nightstalkers are creatures of dark fable, who hunger for the souls of mortals.

In a world steeped in magic, plagued by warfare, and touched by the gods themselves, it seems inevitable that spirits and shades should haunt the realm of mortals. And yet the Nightstalkers are more than mere ghosts: they are the stories by which parents scare their children abed. They are the monsters that dwell in the darkest forests and demand sacrifice from superstitious villagers. They are the darkest dreams and ill omens made manifest.

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