Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Final Trial Conclusion

After defeating a magically empowered Ogroid Thaumaturge, Byron Manfred and his wight king companion charge headlong into a pulsing portal of flame that appears before them. The champions hasten towards what they can only hope will be their final confrontation with the Gaunt Summoner who rules the Silver Tower.

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Final Trial Part 2

The champions find themselves within a chamber dotted with amethyst crystals. Streams of howling ghosts pour from the cyrstals, distracting the champions with their maddening lamentations. Before the warriors stands the Gaunt Summoner, lord of the Silver Tower, who after several previous confrontations is now beginning to look somewhat pained and fatigued. Surrounding the daemon are more of his kairic acolytes, and the adventurers steel themselves to continue the grueling gauntlet prepared for them by the master of the Silver Tower.

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Final Trial Part 1

Byron Manfred opens his eyes to see the wight king standing guard over him. The necromancer can remember feeling the wight king's massive axe cutting into him, though his wounds have now disappeared, undone over time by the mysterious magic of the Silver Tower. Byron also vaguely remembers the now absent bestial fury that had overcome him, and obviously the wight king as well, which made them fight each other for possession of the fragment of Ghur. Suddenly Byron realizes that between them, they now possess all eight fragments of the Gaunt Summoner's amulet!

Long had the champions wandered the twisting ways of the Silver Tower. Many and great were the dangers they had faced. Now, at last, they held in their hands enough fragments of the sacred amulet that they could conjure the Gaunt Summoner to them. With power and freedom beckoning, the champions deemed the hour was nigh, and with that resolution they began a mighty ritual. The amulet fragments flared with light as Byron and the wight king chanted, the words of the ritual coming unbidden to their minds and spilling from their mouths like a river of power. 

As the final syllables were uttered, the light flared bright, and from it stepped the Gaunt Summoner. No illusion was this, no simulacra or trick. The Summoner had himself been summoned, and he stood before the champions in all his infernal might. Yet the creature was not angry. Instead a shark-like grin split his hideous features, and a malevolent chuckle shook his narrow shoulders. Very good, spoke the Summoner, very good. The champions had brought him forth to battle. But were they ready? And if they were, which one of them would claim his boon? Vital questions, sneered the Gaunt Summoner, but ones that would only see an answer if the champions could keep up! With this, the daemon swept his staff in a great arc and with it tore reality aside like a curtain. A glowing rent was left behind, and through this the Gaunt Summoner leapt. The champions exchanged swift and telling looks, then plunged into the rift in pursuit of their tormentor. 

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Trial of Ghur Part 2

Continued from Part 1

In our last episode, Byron Manfred, his wight king companion, and a darkoath chieftain hunted some of the strange beasts of the silver tower, following the currents of the winds of Ghur. After being consumed by a massive wolf made of pure amber, they found themselves facing another of the Gaunt Summoner's trials. After being surrounded by enemies in a passageway, the darkoath chieftain was taken out of action. Byron and the wight king fought on and, after a long struggle, defeated all of the adversaries facing them. After taking a short respite to recover the grievously wounded darkoath chieftain, the adventurers now prepare to continue their trial.

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Trial of Ghur Part 1

Byron and the wight king have just one more fragment to acquire in order to complete the gaunt summoner's amulet and reveal its true name. The wight king holds four of the fragments, while Byron has only three, making it vitally important that he be the one to lay his hands on the final fragment. They know the last fragment is the one associated with the wind of Ghur, and so they follow the trail of any dangerous beasts they encounter as they explore the constantly shifting silver tower, hoping this will lead to an area steeped in the magic of Ghur.

They soon encounter a barbarian fighting his way through the various wandering beasts of the tower. The fierce looking warrior calls himself a darkoath chieftain, though he looks like a savage marauder of the northern wastes. The chieftain appears to only desire to hunt down the strongest adversaries he can find in the tower to prove his worth to his nefarious gods. Thinking that he will not only be helpful in a fight but also likely to lead them to areas of the tower strong with the magic of beasts, Byron arranges to explore with the darkoath chieftain to help each other find strong enemies to vanquish.

After following the darkoath chieftain's lead for a while, the champions find themselves in a vast and echoing gallery from whose vaulted ceiling hangs the dusty skeletons of mythical beasts. Beneath those skeletal curios stands a vast statue, a monstrous wolf graven from a single immense block of purest amber. The champions gasp in horror as that lupine behemoth stirs, its eyes opening to spill wintry light throughout the chamber. Blades are drawn and incantations readied, yet it is all for naught.

With a single great drawing-in of breath the giant wolf sucks the champions from their feet and into its yawning jaws. Through a terrible void they tumble, surrounded by the howls and roars of bestial things, before at last plunging down upon a hard stone floor. As the champions rise shakily to their feet, there can be no doubt in their minds that another trial has begun.

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Trial of Aqshy

Byron and his wight king companion wander a long time in search of their next trial. Byron knows the final two amulets they must acquire will contain the powers of the winds of Aqshy and Ghur, so they search for areas of the tower that seem to be influenced by the winds of fire or beasts. Byron therefore takes it as a good sign when they happen upon a strange dwarf who refers to himself as a fyreslayer doomseeker. The orange-haired fyreslayer is searching for something he calls ur-gold. Byron convinces the doomseeker that they should join together to help each other search the tower, offering to let the fyreslayer keep any ur-gold they manage to find.

Eventually the champions come to a place where there is only one way forward: an ominous tunnel set low in a solid wall of brass. With little choice they fall to their hands and knees, crawling one after another into that steaming darkness. The further they crawl, the greater the temperature becomes, yet at the champions’ heels the tunnel rumbles shut like the closing gullet of some terrible beast. For long  moments they crawl on with ever greater haste, sweat running freely down their scalded faces at the touch of hot brass. Just as they feel they can crawl no further, the champions scramble from the hideous tunnel and into the sweltering space beyond, a small chamber with a single door. Grimacing with pain, Byron comes to the realization that they have passed through a particularly unpleasant portal, and into the beginning of their next deadly trial.

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Trial of Shyish

Byron tumbles through the abyss until at last the darkness consumes him. He slowly regains consciousness in a dark and foreboding hallway. As his faculties return to him, Byron discovers a gargantuan knight in strange looking armor standing over him. The strangely-attired knight makes no attempt to harm the necromancer, and Byron is surprised to discover that he still possesses his two fragments of the gaunt summoner's amulet. Suddenly he remembers that his former companion would now have three of the fragments himself. Or would he? Would he have all of the rest of them by now? Byron had no way of knowing how much time had passed, or what might have become of the wight king he had previous allied himself with.

The knight helps Byron to his feet, describing himself as a "knight questor". The huge knight, who appears to be a devotee of Morr, explains that he is on a quest to slay the lord of the silver tower. Now that Byron is on his own and in need of a new ally who can provide some physical protection, he offers to aid the knight. So the two agree to cooperate in the quest for the gaunt summoner. They begin exploring the area of the silver tower they have found themselves in, which is a dark and macabre dungeon decorated with countless omens of death.

To Byron's surprise, his wight king companion finds him in the twisting passageways of the tower after searching tirelessly since their separation. Byron wonders if perhaps the wight king is more loyal to him than he realized, or if maybe it just didn't want to lose the fragment pieces Byron was carrying when they were separated. The three of them continue to quest together, though only Byron and the wight king know they need to collect more amulet fragments before they will be able to confront the gaunt summoner, and they do not intend to share that information with their new ally.

Eventually the champions come before a macabre gate of vast size and ominous aspect. It resembles a scrimshawed cage, wrought from the bones of countless birds. Within its arched confines dark shadows flutter and trill, the shades of a million feathered things flitting back and forth. Seeing no other path to take, the champions swing those bone gates open and advance cautiously into the enormous cage. As the last of their number passes within, the gates slam shut with a terrible crash, and the avian shades descend in a screeching storm. The Byron and the knight cry out as they feel beaks and claws tear at their flesh, their eyes, and their minds, while the wight king it largely unaffected. Then, as suddenly as the storm descended, it is gone, leaving the champions somewhere else altogether.

Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team

Small teams of T'au operatives have managed to sneak onto the surface of the feudal Imperial world of Beresinia, which is currently engulfed in internecine conflict, with some areas even in open rebellion against Imperial rule. Colonel Kutuzov's Rangers, a light infantry regiment in Count Xuvorov's personal army, receive intelligence that a T'au kill team is operating in their area, but it is unknown why they have come to this world or what they are trying to accomplish with their covert activities.

A small team of men from Kutuzov's regiment is assembled and given the task of tracking down the T'au operatives. Their goal will be to capture some of the T'au, so they can be interrogated to gain information about their mission. At the same time, a hand-picked team of the T'au operatives have been chosen to go into the warzone in order to capture any of the native human soldiers they can find, the higher the rank the better. They are not told why they have been given this task, but the ethereal caste does not need to explain themselves, they must simply be obeyed, since their commands are always for the greater good. Before long, the T'au operatives and Kutuzov's men find each other amidst bombed out industrial ruins.

Warhammer Quest Silver Tower - Trial of Azyr

Byron Manfred and his wight king companion each carry two pieces of the Gaunt Summoner's shattered amulet. Together, they are half-way toward completing their quest and learning the Gaunt Summoner's true name, thereby gaining power over him. As they traverse the silver tower, searching for their next trial, they find themselves in a part of the tower where the air seems a little clearer, and the light a little brighter. Strangely, as they traverse this part of the tower, their surroundings only seem to become more sublime and heavenly with each passing day.

Here they meet a towering human who appears to be a priest of Sigmar, though clearly not a native of Sigmar's lands. The priest has a loyal but very strange looking animal companion with him. Byron keeps his questions to himself, but is immediately suspicious that this strange follower of Sigmar is willing to even converse with a necromancer. However, Byron reasons, the silver tower has undoubtedly made for some extraordinary alliances in the past, and perhaps this warpriest was willing to accept such company in order to search for a way out. And, after all, Byron has no way of knowing how long he has been imprisoned in this accursed tower, or what might have transpired outside of it in his absence.

They agree to explore together for a time for mutual protection. They soon discover shifting corridors which seem bereft of monsters. Cresting a flight of obsidian steps studded with star-like diamonds, the champions find themselves before a yawning portal of heavenly light. Golden statues of strangely armored knights flank the portal, and around their feet lay the blackened corpses of acolytes and beastmen by the score. The warpriest expresses his hope that this portal will lead him to the realm of heavens, which causes Byron to fear the priest might be delusional. Byron knows that whatever lay beyond the portal is surely of the Gaunt Summoner's devising, yet they all sense that their destinies lie ahead. They step through the portal and find themselves in a small chamber with a single exit.