Monday, August 31, 2015

The Hollow Skull

It is well recorded that before the fall of Aenoch and the rise of the Unklar and Aufstrag that many of the nobles of that realm fell to the fad of being slain and risen from the dead. They returned as undead lords and knights. Many of these went on to serve Unklar in their own fashion and fleshed ranks of officers and commanders.

Such was one Baron Herovich. An evil man in life, he became dreadful in death. He haunted the realm of his people for years and when he passed to the service of Unklar he continued to haunt it. His guile and his robust approach to meting out punishment allowed him to rise high in the ranks of Winter’s Dark. But that all ended when Unklar was banished from the plain and his earthly realm collapsed. Herovich was one who attempted to rally the peoples of Aufstrag around the priests but was shunned and driven to the deep holes of Aufstrag by Coburg the Undying (who now holds dominion in the Citadel.

Hereovich lingered in the darkness for many years until he felt his strength returned. He gathered a small army about him and waged war in and around the lower levels until he was driven to heal. He took up refuge in the stables in the Bone Pit. From there he plotted to master the bone devils and bent himself to that task. He attempted to over-awe the devils of the Long Hall but failed. He attempted to split their ranks but found them indifferent to the power of the world. At last he made war on them, summoning the undead to aid him.

It was a short lived war as the bone devils made short work of his people and drove him to the edge of the Dwimmelere. There he fought, but fell to the overwhelming strength. Though he was not destroyed, his bones were carted off, all in separate directions, so that his power was much wasted.

Herovich now is little more than a skull. For the longest while he sat atop one of the columns, watching and plotting, hoping against hope that somehow fate might reunite him with his scattered and much ruined bones. Eventually he was knocked off the column and landed with a thud and a crack to his cranium on the floor below.

There he sits, nestled against the column, looking out from his hollow eyes.

Aufstrag, The Bone Pit

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