The Red Crusade

In the Realm of Ulgu the very realm itself is made of illusion given form. So it is little wonder that in this land of twisted perception the madness of the Blisterskin Grand Court is made manifest. When a traveler crosses the border of the Kingdom of Mord they enter a realm of light and beauty, a place of holy martyrs and righteous deeds. The first thing a traveler finds as he enters the kingdom is a holy order of nuns devoted to the succor of weary travelers. They are greeted as welcome pilgrims and provided food, drink and rest. The nuns ask for nothing in return and wish only to spread the good will of their holy order. Travelers are sent on their way with satchels of bread and cured meat to further them on their journey. Those who cross the kingdom find many willing to defend them along the way, from any perils that may befall them, though there are few dangerous creatures left in the kingdom thanks to the constant efforts of the holy knightly orders that roam the land. Any passing through are welcome to stay in the kingdom and make it their home, joining any one of the many sun worshipping religious orders throughout the land. Many who enter the kingdom do so believing they have entered the Realm of Hysh through a hidden Realmgate. As they pass beyond the borders of the kingdom they find themselves in the Realm of Ulgu once more. To their horror they see the truth of what they have consumed during their journey through the land of the Red Crusade. They carry with them sacks of butchered limbs and the body parts of their fellow travelers. Few survive this return to sanity.

His Beautitude Constantine Molec, ruler of the Blisterskin Grand Court of Ulgu, Grand Ruler of the Ghoul's Tooth Fastness and Holder of the Keys to Hysh.

Archbishop Julian Shale soars the skies above the Kingdom of Mord, a constant reminder to the people that justice and law rule the land. Julian is the patriarch of the prestigious Shale family, a dynasty that date back to the founding of the kingdom during the Age of Myth. It is his privilege to feel the sun's warmth from the back of his celestial gryphon Starstrike.

Raguel, the Rose Red Prince, Lord Chancellor of the Red Crusade. Raguel is favored by the Lords of the court for his courage and by Ladies for his irresistible charms.

Lord Khepri and the Order of the Coptic Stag 2

The frozen ground crunched under the marching feet of the skeleton warriors as they formed a defensive perimeter around Catherine and the tomb. The witchfire burning in her eyes silhouetted her skull in purple as she commanded her minions to dig. At Catherine's word several of the skeletons began to claw at the frozen dirt of the tomb. Catherine could see the hulking form of the Stonehorn crashing through the forest towards her. At her necromantic command the skeletons who were not digging formed up to receive the charge of the Stonehorn. As Catherine began to chant spectral hands materialized from the fog in the path of the Stonehorn, clawing at the beast's mammoth feet, sapping its strength and causing it to slow its mighty charge.

She could feel Marek's presence through the trees to her right. She knew she would feel no loss at his death and that if he did not ascend soon she would have no use for him and end his life herself. For now he had Lord Khepri's favor, but it would not last for long if he could not deliver results. Several times she had foiled his progress, yet he suspected nothing. His desire for her would be his great undoing and she would be the one to deliver the deathblow, whether by her own hand or by engineering his many failures.

She brought her mind back to the battle at hand and bent her will to stopping the stampeding Stonehorn. The spectres in the mist had drained much of the creature's strength, but still it lumbered on. When it finally reached the skeletons much of its charge had been spent, but it was a formidable beast none the less and it shattered the bones of several warriors with each swing of its massive horns. Catherine summoned her necromantic power and called the dead from the ground. Unfortunately the ground had become frozen from the power of the Beastclaw ogors. Far fewer warriors rose from the ground than she had anticipated, but she had to use what was at hand and hope it was enough to bring down the great beast. She was glad none of the other creatures had been sent to reinforce the Huskard and his mount. The swords of the warriors were taking their toll on the creature and she was raising enough of them that she would soon turn the tide of battle in her favor. She was certain that she could excavate the tomb as well as add the Stonehorn to her collection of servants.

Then Catherine sensed another presence in the shrouding fog. This one much more dangerous than the one before her. If she were still living she would feel disgust at the voracious appetite of this new presence. The Butcher sent a deadly bolt of hungering darkness at her, but she deflected it into her skeletal minions and several of them crumbled to dust and blew away in a ghostly wind. Another bolt was hurtled at her and this she dispelled with a wave of her skeletal hand. This magic user would need to be dealt with quickly. With a quick incantation and a violent gesture she crafted a deadly spell of her own for this new rival. She could hear the ogor's howls of pain as spectral servants tore her soul from her body and carried it screaming to Catherine's outstretched hand. Reinvigorated by the soul of the Butcher she poured her power into raising more skeletons and the power was enough for them to break free of the icy earth. With the last of his strength bleeding from him through hundreds of wounds the stonehorn finally topple to the ground, crushing his Huskard master beneath his massive bulk. Catherine relished the screams of his soul as she slowly consumed it. She imagined how much sweeter it would be when it was Marek's turn.

Lord Khepri and the Order of the Coptic Stag 1

The night was absolute. No stars in the sky filtered through the creaking forest canopy and the skeletal moon was hidden behind the horizon, though better the darkness than the horrors the cadaverous moon's light would reveal. There were no sounds of nature as in the forests of the Realm of Ghyran. No insects chirped or buzzed and no night birds called. The only sounds in the woods of Shyish were the howling of the wind and the creaking of branches. The horrors these sounds revealed were hidden from the sight of mortals who traveled the realm by the darkness of the night.

Lord Baltazar Khepri gazed unto the night with no mortal eyes. It had been many ages since he had been flesh and blood. Many centuries since his heart beat in his chest and blood flowed through his veins. He would occasionally get glimpses of memories from that time, but before he could tease out the meaning of these fleeting images they would be gone and he would soon forget they had occurred at all. These things meant little to him for they were not of the present and had no relation to his current purpose. The Grand Master of the Order of the Coptic Stag had been given purpose by his dark master Arkhan the Black, Right Hand of Nagash, Lord of All.

Baltazar sat atop his rotting stag Helhest, a gift from his master Arkhan. The two were as unmoving as a corpse. The only signs of his deathly reanimation were the two burning pinpricks within the hollows of his eye sockets. Near him, with the animated agitation of the still living, stood Marek.

"I don't understand what we are doing wandering around this blasted forest in the dark of night," proclaimed Marek. He and Baltazar had spent the better part of the night searching the dark woods and Marek's patients was wearing thin.

"Silence," Baltazar's voice echoed from the creaking trees as if spoken from the corpses of hanged men raised unwillingly from the grave. "All we require will be found in time," stated Baltazar in his corpse dry voice. "We seek the barrow place of Khoric of Maelthonia. And in it Khoric and his cursed followers."

"Yes, I am aware of whom we seek and why, but what good does it do us doing so in this dark night?" Marek replied in a less demanding tone.

"We are here because we are not the only ones who seek the tomb," Baltazar reminded the necromancer. Just as Baltazar spoke the words a mighty crash sounded through the forest, temporarily drowning out the howl of the wind. Marek jumped at the sound, but Baltazar merely turned in the direction it came from.

The necromancer's hands began to glow with amethyst power as he unleashed his spells of summoning. As in most locations within the realm of Shyish the land was ripe with corpses waiting to be summoned by those with the knowledge to do so. At the necromancer's beckoning the dead began to rise from their graves. The tomb of Khoric must be close in deed Marek thought, for the dead who rose were the guardians of the tomb of a king and no common warriors. Still Marek could feel the presence of more dead warriors beneath his feet simply awaiting his call to arms.

As the grave guardians rose from the ground the air filled with the sound of flapping wings and the shrill cries of hundreds of bats. From deeper in the woods appeared Marek's companion, Catherine.

Catherine had once been a student of Marek's, but in time she surpassed him in the necromantic arts and now had traveled beyond death to become a liche. Marek was envious of her power and was still frantically searching for a means to live on beyond death in a grander form than a walking corpse. As yet he had found no means to prevent the inevitable.

Catherine's eyes glowed with purple fire as she directed the swarms of bats overhead. "The beastherds move against us," her hollow voice echoed out from beyond the grave.

Beyond Catherine came the thunderous sounds of hooves as Baltazar's knights arrived and the continued howling of the wind announced the arrival of those in the Order who's form had become so saturated with death magic that they existed in an incorporeal state beyond the physical world.

The wraiths split off and traveled deeper into the forest at Baltazar's unspoken command, where he knew Oleksiy was waiting to lead them. Baltazar knew that the vampire lord only served under him because his master Baron Thaddius Finch commanded it. Baltazar didn't care why as long as he served.

Catherine traveled in the same direction in case Oleksiy had need of her power while Marek stayed behind to serve Baltazar in the same capacity. He knew once the full might of the dead rose he would be needed to help maintain them during the coming battle...

The Black Coach of Baron Thaddius Finch

Baron Thaddius Finch was once a crusader bringing the light of Sigmar to the far corners of the Mortal Realms. That was until he overreached his abilities. Near a realm gate to Shyish he encounter a powerful vampire lord and exhausted and bloody was transformed into the thing he hated the most, an undead revenant. Since that day over a hundred years have passed and the man who once sacrificed in Sigmar's name has murdered countless innocents in the name of his new master Nagash. The baron prefers to travel by coach, a throwback to his noble birth, and on occasion when he needs to regain his power he takes his coach to the fields of slaughter, soaking in the fell sorceries of his nefarious servants.

Lord Baltazar Khepri, Master of the Order of the Coptic Stag

As promised I present my first new AoS post.
Lord Baltazar Khepri, Master of the Order of the Coptic Stag. Once the leader of an order of knights dedicated to seeking out and ridding the world of ancient necromantic lore Baltazar delved deep into the mysteries of ancient Khemri and unlocked secrets not known since the time of the Black Pyramid. Baltazar eventually corrupted the rest of the order and one by one the knights were turned to a new purpose and became lifeless corpses serving Baltazar Khepri in gathering lost necromantic texts for safe keeping. Once the Order was wholly converted Khepri presented them in their entirety to Arkhan the Black to serve as his personal guards. He has remained Arkhan's loyal servant ever since.