Setup for Scenario 1A

The evening skies are alight with the fires of damnation as they spread across the lands. Evil is pressing its influence across the wastes surrounding the Abyssal cleft to the east, its infernal flames spreading up to taint the sky with a crimson hue that radiates a shallow heat which can be felt in the unseasonably warm temperatures that can be felt in the quickly dwindling summer. Autumn is coming on, but even though the leaves have long since fled from their branches, the nights are still uncomfortably warm and the coming harvest is clinging to dusty vines and withered stalks as farmhands have been called into the false sense of security that stone walls and armored sentries can provide. Little do they realize that hunger and desperation are just as deadly to a terrified population as the swords of the demons lying at their gates.

Even now the cries of children that have been cooped up for far too long cry out in a wilted, keening song that fills the streets with its melancholic sound. These whimpers echo up til they reach the ears of a figure clad in shimmering armor. He stands towering over the height of even the tallest of men, his hair splays out from his chiselled features in a feather-soft touch of golden amber and his eyes look out from his vantage point at the sad candles that even now flicker in the night amongst the over-crowded homes far below him. He stands hunched over the railing of the tower where he sits and waits for the coming dark. Closing his eyes he can feel the dark taint of his twin searching for him out in the cursed twilight surrounding the city.

“Urz’Rael” he whispers in a voice too beautiful to be human. In the months since his birth, this being known as Cathius has been fleeing the servants of his twin, and now that the Abyss has spread and is threatening to consume the north, his brother has extended his reach in his pursuit of his Shining half. Cathius knows that he can flee no longer. He knows that the time has finally come for their final confrontation. He knows that only one will walk away from that battle.

And he is terrified.

Cathius knows that because of the elements surrounding his birth into this world that his twin is stronger than he. While both are able to command power so immense that no mortal could hope to withstand them, Urz’Rael still commands the greater portion of strength between the two. Cathius knows that in his current state, should he fight his brother he will be destroyed. Some forgotten memory from a previous life stirs within his breast and causes a flutter of what mortals may call anxiety, but is something that spans across an eternity of existence and is unknown to the finite existence of anything bound to the wheels of years.

Cathius has tasted oblivion and has no wish to return to such a state so soon.

A knock at his door pulls the deity from his reverie and he barks a quick command to enter. The door opens to reveal the High Abbess Sadria, a capable mortal who has proven herself invaluable in the defense of the city which had recently come to sit on the edge of the Abyss.

“My Lord!” She cries with bowed head, her emerald eyes cast towards the floor.

“You may speak.” Cathius does not turn to face her, instead he continues to gaze in the direction of the glowing skies hovering above the demonic chasm outside the city walls.

“The halflings have returned with word as you commanded them.” Sadria does not raise her head, but neither does her voice quaver in the presence of her god. This news causes Cathius to pivot and face his abbess.

“What news do they bring?” His voice is urgent, his tone is clipped.

“They say that your Abyssal half is building something, an obelisk of some sort.” The Abbess speaks quickly, the words falling from her lips as fast as she can summon them. “They heard him speak of it as some kind of conductor for the Abyssal powers growing in the Pit. If he is allowed to finish it, then it could spell the doom for our world.”

Cathius shakes his head. “No not the doom of this world. That has happened before. The creators of this world have not grown so indifferent as to destroy their creation, yet. However, it does mean blood, and fire, and death. A world filled with suffering and anguish. Where the light struggles to make itself seen in the darkness. This cannot be allowed to come to pass.” Croathus strides over and places an enormous hand under Sadria’s chin, lifting her gaze to meet his.

“Gather our forces. We will go out to meet him. This will not pass unchallenged.”

Sadria blinks and sets her jaw. In this moment the wind shifts and the alarum of trumpets is heard blasting over the warm breeze.

“An attack on the East Gate!” Sadria gasps and begins to move toward the balcony where her lord had stood moments before. Something stirs in the back of Cathius’s consciousness. Something about this turn of events does not sit well with him. The East Gate is heavily fortified and best prepared to meet the Abyssal forces arrayed against them. It makes no sense why his twin would attack there. The other gates are still imposing, but they would be easier to assault than the East Gate. Something is wrong, and Cathius can feel it.

“Fortify the East Gate but send reserves from our allies to the other gates. I feel that we are being duped. My brother seeks to deceive us!” Cathius bellows his commands then turns to face the Abyss from his balcony once more. Sadria nods and runs from the room to relay her master’s orders.

Meanwhile the warm breeze begins to grow in fervor, building up slowly to a towering crescendo of gusts equal to a coastal storm. Green lightning flashes in the skies overhead and rolling thunder builds to echo the howling wind. In the intermittent flashes of light brought on by the cloven lightning, one can barely make out the huddled shapes of small bands of warriors making their way towards the city with murder in their eyes while the battle for the East Gate rages on far and away from their sneaking assault.