Tenebra Rock. At high tide, it was a jagged outcrop of dark stone protruding from the turbulent, churning waves of the Forbidden Sea. Crowning the island was a fortress, commanding the seas around it with gun emplacements upon the ramparts, bearing a dark halo that spoke of the ill deeds and foul creatures inhabiting the old Second War garrison.
The battle began at dawn, six of the seven vessels of the Alliance's flotilla sailing forth to engage the mutineer fleet at the maximum range of their guns. Over the course of the day, the weather became progressively worse. Rain lashed down upon the decks, and a bitter, winter wind fought against the sails of the frigates, but the elements weren't enough to turn away the fervor of the Alliance's forces.
From the Northern Stalwart, the Order of Lordain prepared to land on Tenebra Rock at low tide. Their goal, unlike the marines that accompanied them, was to find a quieter, more tactical way into the fort, while their allies assaulted the landing grounds and the gate of the citadel.
An hour before their landing, the Adherent rangers of the Order went ahead to scout the island out. With the tide out, they found a storm drain at the foot of the fort, and guided the rest of the Order to it once they arrived. It was a putrid thing, an outlet for mangled, mulched body parts and less identifiable remnants of long-dead things, but it was a way in nonetheless, and a way that led into what could be best described as a morgue.
The lower level of Tenebra Rock was a slaughterhouse, a workshop for fleshworkers, commanded by a brutish ogre that had long since died and been raised. Clad in tenebrous metal, Lord Kug stalked among his abominations, his mutant, festering golems, and among the countless corpses that the Cult of the Damned so diligiently harvested under his oppressive gaze. Such oppression soon came to an end, however - storming the storm drain, the Order butchered the butchers, drawing the attention and ire of the undead commander high above.
No other than Kelmir, reformed as a Lich, observed the Holy Order from on high, and commanded Kug's beaten corpse to rise when he fell... but not even the hoary shroud, bestowed upon him by the lich, could withstand the fury of Sir Uriel. In a moment of prayer, he called out to the memory of the Ashbringer and obliterated the twice-risen Golem Lord, paving the way forward into the fortress of Tenebra Rock.
Their foothold was tenuous, and barred by a portcullis that opened up to the second level, infested with Cultist rats. They would await high tide, in the early hours of the morning, when reinforcements might arrive to provide them security on their long ascent of the forgotten fort - towards vengeance, towards destiny...
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