The storm came like a warning, but not the honest kind. Not the sort a man could read off the horizon and ride away from. This was a sickness in the sky itself, blooming through the night. Green light pulsed behind the clouds. Thunder dragged itself across the Reik. And somewhere above the von Wittgenstein palace, something vast turned over in its sleep, and the stone and timber of the castle shuddered under the weight of it.

Felrick did not like that one bit.

They stood in the dark of the entrance hall, the malformed steward cooling at their feet. Outside waited a courtyard full of monsters and worse questions. Above them something prowled the upper keep. Ahead, purple smoke bled from the ruined temple. Then the green light flashed again, and in the boiling clouds Mordslieb showed its face, and that settled the argument. The palace could be searched later, if there was a later. Whatever was happening in that temple had the shape of catastrophe, and it was always better to face the horror you could see than the one you could only imagine.

Rain started as they crossed the courtyard.

The temple doors stood open. Lavender mist rolled over the threshold and spilled into the dark like breath from a grave. Qavitrae studied it and found nothing in it to comfort her. In centuries of war against Chaos she had never met this particular smoke, but she did not need to name a thing to know it. Nothing good ever came wrapped in purple.

They crept up and looked inside.

The temple of Sigmar had been murdered. Statues lay broken and repainted in colours that turned the stomach; sacred stone had been shattered and reassembled into mockeries of itself. Great silver figures stood naked and gleaming, censers raised high, and from the censers poured that thick violet haze. Bodies writhed inside it: men and women knotted together, flesh on flesh, moaning while a broken organ groaned somewhere deeper in the dark. It was enough to turn even hard stomachs. This was not revelry. It was rot you could see. There was no altar victim, no ritual knife, no captive straining against the ropes. Only the depravity itself.

Nora pulled her last bottle bomb off her belt. Someone struck a flame, and the fuse caught and hissed.

“Sigmar forgive me,” she muttered, and threw.

The bottle tumbled through the doorway trailing fire. Glass burst. Flame bloomed in the smoke. The cries of pleasure became screams, and then, somehow, slid back into cries of pleasure again. The doors slammed shut.

They waited. Nothing came through after them. No one screamed for help, no one ran. Only those muffled sounds went on behind the wood, which was somehow worse than any scream.

They opened the doors again, and the smell of cooking meat rolled out to meet them. The haze still crawled along the floor. Bodies still twitched in the fire. And out of the smoke the survivors rose with empty faces and open arms, reaching for the newcomers as if to welcome them in. Many were already changed: an extra limb here, flesh pulled wrong, a face warped past its making. Chaos had had its hooks in them long before the fire ever touched them.

Arrows answered. The first cultists dropped before they understood they were dying.

Then the Beastmen came out of the mist. Three of them, huge, stepping from the thickest of the lavender clouds, muscle corded under coarse hide, horns curling back from heads that were almost, but not quite, the heads of men. The temple hadn’t only been defiled. It had been turned into a breeding pit.

Nora charged. Battered as she was, half-dead on her feet, she still moved the way she’d once moved across a Blitzball field. Hands grabbed for her and closed on nothing; she slipped through the cultists and slammed into the nearest Beastman hard enough to put it on the floor. Then she brought her weapon down, and missed. The thing lived. Worse, it noticed.

After that the room came apart. Felrick’s arrows punched clean through armour and still the creatures soaked up wounds that would have dropped any honest man. Qavitrae’s crossbow chose that moment to fail her. Thindruk hung back and waited for his openings while Wanda shouted her companions upright, her voice a wall at their backs. Then the Beastmen closed the distance.

One hit Wanda like a landslide, the charge numbing her arm straight through shield and steel, but she kept her feet. Another barrelled past, and she and Nora hammered it as it went, blades biting deep, and still it didn’t stop. A hoof caught Felrick in the ribs and threw him toward the black mouth of the pit beside the entrance. Pain went off in him like powder. Only dumb luck kept him out of the dark.

The Beastman Nora had floored was up again. Its fist found her throat and lifted her clean off the ground. Something cracked in her neck. The words went out of her, and when she tried to speak afterward only a strangled sound came. She kept fighting anyway. Knocked the brute down a second time and dragged herself into a better position while her body fell apart around her.

It turned into butcher’s work at arm’s length. Thindruk’s rapier found a seam and tore through a Beastman’s shoulder until the arm hung useless. Wanda’s morningstar stove in ribs. Qavitrae darted in with her sword wherever a gap opened. And Felrick finally gave up on subtlety, dropped the bow, drew his pistol, and fired. The shot took the Beastman’s skull apart and dropped it where it stood.

The last two fought like the world was ending. One loosed a bellow so full of hate it seemed to crawl into the soul and nest there; fear broke over the defenders, and this time Nora went down with it, folding unconscious into the purple smoke. That should have been the end of them. It wasn’t. One Beastman died under Wanda’s morningstar. The last fell when Felrick stepped in close, put the pistol under its jaw, and fired up into its face. The back of its head simply wasn’t there anymore. The body hit the floor.

Then quiet. Not real quiet. The organ still played. The cultists still moaned and wept. The smoke still poured. But the thing in front of them was dead, and for one breath they let themselves believe it was over.

That was when Qavitrae saw the movement above.

Something was coming down from the gallery. Graceful. Wrong in a way that had nothing to do with mutation. A slender shape lowered itself into the light with a cat’s ease, skin that shimmered, claws that caught the fire, a long tail uncoiling behind it. Beautiful and obscene at once, and she knew it on sight: a daemon of Slaanesh. Not a mutant, not a Beastman. The real thing. Her blood went cold. Everything before this, the cultists and the rot and the Beastmen, had only been the doorway. This was what the smoke was for. This was what had killed the temple, the thing sitting at the centre of all of it, and most of the others hadn’t even seen it yet.

Qavitrae didn’t stop to explain. She ran, caught Nora’s limp body, and hauled her back from the doors. Smelling salts dragged the girl up out of the dark, though her ruined voice came back as nothing but ragged breath.

By then the daemon was already crossing the floor. It moved through the haze without hurry, certain of itself, while the surviving cultists watched it with the eyes of the faithful. Burning corpses lay around its feet, and it did not look down at them. Couldn’t see them, perhaps, or simply didn’t care which. It whispered. No one had the language, and the meaning came through anyway, sliding in under armour and skin both as fear and as something worse than fear, a promise none of them wanted and all of them felt.

The daemon smiled.

And there, in the smoke and the dead and the wreck of Sigmar’s house, the companions looked up into the true face of the thing eating Castle Wittgenstein from the inside. Everything until now had only been the gate. This was what waited past it.

Session Notes

  • The session opened inside the inner bailey of Castle Wittgenstein, in the ancestral home of the von Wittgenstein family, after the party had entered the palace rather than investigate the other strange buildings in the courtyard.

  • The GM recapped that the party had crossed from the outer bailey into the inner bailey, shutting portcullises and gates behind them to slow any pursuers and trap anyone inside the inner bailey with them.

  • The inner bailey remained full of ominous sights:

    • A desecrated temple of Sigmar with purple smoke billowing out.
    • Red light shining through stained glass.
    • A tall tower near the temple.
    • The von Wittgenstein family manse.
    • A greenhouse full of sleeping bird-people.

  • The party had entered the manse and encountered an elderly servant-like man in the dark.

    • He treated them as visitors.
    • He asked whether their journey had gone well.
    • He seemed to assume some of them might be suitors for young Lady Marguerite von Wittgenstein.
    • He offered them piles of rotting food and a chamber for the night.
    • He revealed a curled bird-talon hand.
    • Felrick reacted by firing a heavy war arrow through him, killing him before he hit the ground.

  • The party began the session in the darkened entry area of the manse.

    • The only real light was from the old man’s fallen candle.
    • Most of the room was pitch black for anyone without darkvision.
    • Several staircases led up to a mezzanine and higher floors.
    • The servants’ quarters were remembered as being on the northwestern side of the house.
    • The manse had multiple stories and a tower-like section connected to the rest of the house.

  • A deep rumbling began somewhere above the party in the higher floors of the palace.

    • The sound was like something very large moving.
    • The vibration shuddered through the house.
    • The rumbling continued for a while before eventually stopping.

  • Shortly after the rumbling began, the party saw a bright green flash from outside.

    • The flash was bright enough to illuminate the edges of the curtained windows all around the house.
    • A tremendous peal of thunder followed.
    • The effect reminded the party somewhat of a previous demonic explosion, though this flash came from outside and lit the windows from all directions.

  • Wanda looked out a front window across the courtyard.

    • Rain had started to fall in fat drops onto the cobblestones.
    • Green light flashed in the clouds.
    • The clouds were thickening rapidly.
    • A green crescent moon was visible behind the storm clouds.
    • The party identified it as Morrslieb, the ominous Chaos moon.

  • The group debated whether to continue exploring the manse or rush to the temple.

    • Qavitrae was wary of leaving dangers behind them in the palace.
    • Others argued that the green storm, Morrslieb, and smoke from the temple suggested a ritual or worsening threat outside.
    • Wanda was concerned about the hired guard Mayfly possibly being sacrificed.
    • Felrick noted that he had paid for multiple days and wanted to get his money’s worth by saving her.
    • The party concluded that whatever was happening in the temple was more urgent than searching the palace.

  • Thindruk searched the dark room for oil lamps or a source of oil to make a firebomb.

    • He found a small table with a single oil lamp and a bowl of tapers.
    • It was not enough oil to make the larger firebomb he had hoped for.
    • Nora still had one bottle bomb available.
    • The fallen candle, or a flint and tinder from someone’s survival kit, could be used to light it.
    • Felrick confirmed that he had a survival kit containing flint and tinder, along with other supplies such as a fishing rod and hook.

  • The party joked in-character about putting the bottle bomb on the end of Felrick’s fishing rod and “fishing for cultists,” but proceeded with the firebomb in a more direct way.

  • The group left the manse and crossed the rainy courtyard toward the temple of Sigmar.

    • The temple doors remained open.
    • Thick purple smoke rolled out along the ground before dissipating.
    • The rain and green lightning continued overhead.

  • Felrick asked Qavitrae what purple smoke meant.

    • Qavitrae tried to draw on her experience from the Chaos Wars.
    • She had never seen this exact smoke before, but understood clearly that it was unnatural and dangerous.

  • The party approached stealthily and looked through the open temple doors.

    • The rain, darkness, and distraction inside made their stealth easier.
    • Nora’s stealth was especially strong and helped cover Wanda’s less careful movement.
    • No one inside appeared to notice the party.

  • Inside the temple, the party saw the remnants of a Sigmarite holy place that had been desecrated.

    • A large stone altar stood inside.
    • A statue of Sigmar had been broken and defaced.
    • The remains of the statue included a broken arm holding the haft of a hammer.
    • The desecrated statue was painted in bright colors.
    • Garlands hung from the broken stone.
    • Two large silver censers stood on either side of the altar.
    • Each censer was supported by a polished silver statue, one shaped like a naked man and the other like a naked woman.
    • Lavender-purple mist poured thickly from the censers and rolled across the floor.

  • The center of the temple was filled with writhing naked bodies in carnal embrace.

    • The people inside moaned and tittered.
    • A discordant organ played somewhere in the temple.
    • The tune was unsettling but strangely seductive.
    • Some of the people appeared to be struggling, though it was hard to tell through the smoke.

  • Nora looked for any sign of Mayfly or another captive being sacrificed.

    • There was no obvious bound prisoner.
    • No one was tied to a stake.
    • No one was being circled by knife-wielding cultists.
    • The scene seemed to be a profane orgy rather than a visible sacrifice.

  • The party had to make stress checks in response to the desecration and the scene inside.

    • Some of the characters were deeply appalled by the defilement of a Sigmarite holy place.
    • The scene was treated as flagrant heresy within a temple of Sigmar.

  • Once the party confirmed that they did not see Mayfly, Nora decided she was willing to burn the room.

    • The party planned to throw the bottle bomb into the temple and then close the doors.
    • The temple doors opened outward.
    • The party believed they could toss the bottle bomb in and pull the doors shut.
    • Wanda and Nora prepared to hold the doors closed afterward.

  • Qavitrae and Felrick both offered flame for Nora’s bottle bomb.

    • The fuse was lit.
    • Nora gave a quick nod “in Sigmar’s name.”
    • She hurled the bottle bomb into the temple.

  • The bottle bomb arced into the temple in flame.

    • The doors were pulled shut as it landed.
    • The glass shattered inside.
    • Sounds of pleasure turned into screams.
    • The screams shifted back and forth between pain and ecstasy.
    • No clear alarm went up.
    • No one shouted that the temple was under attack.
    • No one cried out in a normal way about dying from fire.

  • The party waited outside the closed temple doors and looked around.

    • The storm continued.
    • Rain came down harder.
    • Green flashes continued in the clouds.
    • Qavitrae and Thindruk noticed a humanoid figure standing behind the large stained-glass window above the temple doors.
    • The figure was about twenty feet above them.
    • It stood behind the colored glass, apparently looking down at the party.
    • A tail or something like a tail seemed to move behind it.

  • Thindruk tapped Felrick’s shoulder and pointed toward the figure behind the glass.

    • Felrick considered shooting it.
    • The glass would have made the shot difficult.
    • Before Felrick could fire, the figure dropped out of sight.

  • Wanda leaned into the temple doors with her shield ready.

    • Nora took the other door.
    • Qavitrae stepped back and readied her crossbow.
    • Felrick aimed at the doors.
    • Thindruk drew his rapier.
    • Nothing immediately tried to force the doors open.
    • The screams inside faded.

  • The party reopened the temple doors.

    • The interior looked mostly the same, except that there were smoldering flames and burned bodies.
    • The smell of fresh burning flesh filled the air.
    • Some of the moans now sounded like people near death, though still mixed disturbingly with pleasure.
    • The tailed figure was not visible.

  • The party saw that the temple was one large chamber with an upper level or choir area above.

    • Stairs led upward.
    • The group was wary that the unseen figure might be above them or waiting to grab whoever entered first.

  • As the doors opened fully, some of the naked people in the smoke began to stand.

    • They were unclothed.
    • They reached toward the party.
    • Several showed signs of mutation.
    • The party began shooting them.
    • Arrows and bolts dropped some of them.
    • The remaining cultists did not flee in ordinary terror.
    • Some backed away, brushed against others, and immediately resumed passionate embraces.

  • The party understood that the people in the temple were Chaos-tainted and continued attacking them.

    • The focus shifted from the writhing cultists to more dangerous figures emerging from the thickest purple mist near the censers.

  • Three muscular, hairy, horned Beastmen emerged from the smoke.

    • They resembled satyr-like Beastmen.
    • They had dull eyes.
    • One bleated loudly.
    • They were naked and visibly part of the profane scene.
    • The party identified them as much more immediate combat threats.

  • Felrick and Qavitrae fired at the Beastmen before the main fight fully began.

    • Felrick used an automatic hit with his bow against the center Beastman.
    • His arrow struck hard, but the Beastman’s tough body absorbed much of the force.
    • The arrow stuck shallowly and did not cause a serious injury.
    • Qavitrae attempted to shoot with her crossbow but missed.

  • Combat began against the three Beastmen.

    • Thindruk readied his rapier and aimed, preparing to attack if one came close.
    • Wanda used a litany of inspiring words for the party.
    • The inspiration bolstered the group’s thresholds and initiative.
    • Nora immediately charged into the temple toward the center Beastman.

  • Nora had to cross the slick, crowded floor.

    • Bodies, smoke, and grasping cultists made the footing dangerous.
    • She used her Blitzball experience to dodge through people trying to grab or touch her.
    • Her movement through the press was successful.

  • Nora charged the already-wounded center Beastman.

    • She used a takedown maneuver.
    • Because she charged, the takedown used Athletics.
    • The Beastman initially resisted, but Nora forced a reroll with fortune.
    • The Beastman failed the second resistance check.
    • Nora slammed into its center of gravity and knocked it prone.

  • Nora tried to follow up by driving her sword into the prone Beastman.

    • Her attack critically failed.
    • The GM initially resolved it with a stress check before finding the more severe rule.
    • Nora escaped the harsher automatic peril consequence because the check had already been made.
    • She remained standing and continued fighting.

  • Felrick reloaded, aimed, and fired his bow at the Beastman on the left.

    • The Beastman tried to dodge but failed.
    • Felrick’s arrow struck the Beastman.
    • The arrow hit with force but again did not penetrate as deeply as it would have against a human.
    • The Beastman broke the shaft away after being hit.

  • Qavitrae fired her crossbow at the Beastman on the left.

    • She missed.
    • The miss was blamed in-character on the crossbow being Mayfly’s unreliable contraption rather than an elven weapon.

  • One Beastman charged toward Wanda.

    • It lowered its head and attacked with its horns.
    • Wanda raised her shield and parried successfully.
    • The force of the blow shocked her arm, but she was not injured.

  • Another Beastman ran past Wanda and Nora toward Felrick.

    • Nora and Wanda both received opportunity attacks as it passed.
    • Nora struck one of the passing Beastmen and drew blood.
    • She struck another as it passed as well.
    • Wanda’s opportunity attack with her Morgenstern hit and damaged the charging Beastman.
    • Wanda’s powerful weapon knocked the Beastman off course and broke the momentum of its charge.

  • The Beastman that had been knocked off course slid near Felrick.

    • It roared at him and attacked with a heavy hoof kick.
    • Felrick could not defend.
    • The kick struck him in the ribs.
    • Felrick was wounded and rolled for injury, but avoided a serious injury result.
    • The Beastman’s powerful blow knocked Felrick away from engagement range.
    • Felrick tumbled and landed close to the edge of the nearby pit.

  • The prone center Beastman stood up.

    • It used much of its action to rise.
    • It attacked Nora with heavy fists.
    • The GM initially referred to Wanda, but the attack was resolved against Nora.
    • The Beastman critically hit Nora.
    • The blow smashed into Nora’s throat.
    • Nora became seriously wounded.
    • She suffered a fractured larynx.
    • She could not speak normally unless she succeeded at the necessary test.
    • Her attempted quip came out as a choked cough.

  • Nora, now much closer to the back of the temple and heavily affected by her wounds and peril, failed to notice something else in the temple.

    • Through the lavender mist, a large pipe organ stood against the back wall.
    • Thick purple tentacles were sliding out from the flues of the organ.
    • The organ itself did not yet move.
    • The tentacles continued extending, and their reach was uncertain.

  • Thindruk, having aimed previously, attacked the Beastman near him.

    • He took another aim action before striking.
    • His rapier attack hit.
    • He spent fortune to improve the damage.
    • His rapier pierced deeply into the Beastman’s chest.
    • The attack caused a serious injury.
    • The Beastman suffered a torn shoulder.
    • The injury greatly reduced its ability to act.

  • Wanda used a litany of hatred against the Beastmen.

    • The Beastmen’s thresholds were reduced.
    • Because of Wanda’s intimidating demeanor, they also suffered peril.
    • She then attacked with her Morgenstern but missed.
    • Wanda saved her remaining action point for defense.

  • Nora, wounded and unable to speak properly, attacked the Beastman that had crushed her throat.

    • Her sword attack missed.
    • She then used another takedown maneuver.
    • The takedown succeeded.
    • The Beastman failed to resist.
    • Nora knocked it back down to the ground.
    • She moved away from the prone Beastman and repositioned near Wanda, trying to flank another enemy while avoiding the tentacles.

  • Felrick dropped his bow and drew his pistol.

    • Drawing the pistol was treated as a free weapon swap at the start of his turn.
    • Felrick aimed at the Beastman that had kicked him and fired.
    • The shot hit.
    • The gunpowder weapon could not be dodged.
    • Felrick’s bullet hit the Beastman from below.
    • The top of the Beastman’s head exploded.
    • The Beastman fell dead near Felrick, but did not knock him into the pit.

  • Qavitrae moved into melee and attacked a Beastman with an elven sword.

    • The Beastman tried to parry unarmed.
    • The parry was penalized because the Beastman was unarmed against proper weapons.
    • Qavitrae forced a reroll.
    • The Beastman failed the rerolled defense.
    • Qavitrae struck it and opened a deep slash along its thigh, though not enough to stagger it.

  • One Beastman answered Wanda’s litany with its own bellowing litany of hatred.

    • It knew the name of Ulric and reacted hatefully to Wanda’s invocation.
    • The litany affected Wanda, Nora, and Qavitrae.
    • It inflicted mental peril.
    • Qavitrae became periled.
    • Wanda reduced the effect somewhat with her own ability.
    • Nora, already under severe peril, became incapacitated and collapsed.

  • The same Beastman then tried to attack Wanda.

    • It failed badly and overextended itself.
    • It suffered peril from its failed attack.
    • Wanda avoided the blow.

  • The remaining wounded Beastman stood up and moved toward Wanda.

    • It had used too much of its action to attack that turn.
    • It positioned itself aggressively, still wanting blood.

  • Thindruk moved into melee behind Wanda and attacked.

    • He struck with his rapier.
    • The Beastman had no defense left.
    • Thindruk spent fortune to improve the damage.
    • His attack wounded the Beastman but did not produce an injury.

  • Wanda attacked the Beastman near her with her Morgenstern.

    • The Beastman used its remaining action point to parry.
    • Even with penalties for being unarmed, it successfully defended.
    • Wanda’s strike did not land.
    • She kept two action points available for defense because she was trying to hold the doorway and protect the others.

  • Nora lay incapacitated behind the enemy line.

    • She was seriously wounded and unable to speak properly.
    • The group discussed getting her out and using smelling salts.

  • Felrick stepped away from the edge of the pit.

    • He fired his pistol at one of the remaining Beastmen.
    • The shot hit.
    • The damage was strong enough to injure.
    • Felrick blasted off one of the Beastman’s ears.
    • The Beastman remained alive but badly hurt.

  • Qavitrae attacked again, aiming carefully and stabbing.

    • Her initial attack was strong, but the GM forced a reroll with misfortune.
    • The reroll failed.
    • Qavitrae’s attack missed.

  • One Beastman turned on Qavitrae.

    • It called her a wretched Azrai.
    • It aimed and attacked her with its heavy hooves.
    • Qavitrae parried successfully with her elven blade.
    • The slow nature of the Beastman’s attack and her strong parry protected her.

  • Another Beastman attacked Wanda.

    • Wanda parried with her shield and weapon skill.
    • The Beastmen, now fighting more carefully, had formed up against the party at the temple entrance.

  • At the start of the next round, the party made awareness checks.

    • Qavitrae succeeded.
    • She saw a new threat lowering itself down from the choir balcony.
    • It descended gracefully by means of a tail.

  • Qavitrae saw the creature clearly.

    • It was a daemon with crab-like claws and an alluring, disturbing form.
    • Qavitrae made a fear check and succeeded.
    • She then made an education check and recognized it as one of the lesser daemons of Slaanesh.
    • She knew that even a lesser daemon was extremely dangerous.
    • She also knew that daemons are not fully stable in the material world unless bound by sorcery, linked to a location, serving a sorcerer, or otherwise sustained.

  • Qavitrae hissed in Eltharin that it was a daemon of Slaanesh.

    • At first, no one else clearly saw the daemon because the fight and the purple mist obscured it.

  • Thindruk attacked the injured Beastman with the missing ear.

    • He aimed and struck.
    • The Beastman used its remaining action point to parry.
    • The parry succeeded, using up the Beastman’s defense.

  • Wanda attacked the other Beastman with her Morgenstern.

    • Her blow landed.
    • The strike smashed ribs.
    • Blood gushed from the Beastman’s mouth.
    • The Beastman dropped to its knees and died.

  • Wanda considered using another litany against the newly arrived daemon, but she had not yet actually perceived it clearly.

    • Instead, she attempted a takedown against the remaining Beastman to help Qavitrae.
    • The takedown failed.
    • Wanda could not knock the Beastman down.

  • Nora remained incapacitated at that point.

  • Felrick moved close enough to use his pistol without risking shooting his allies in the back.

    • He targeted the last Beastman.
    • Felrick’s pistol attack critically succeeded.
    • With the gunpowder weapon’s extra damage, the shot was devastating.
    • He spent fortune to explode the damage.
    • The bullet struck the Beastman between the eyes.
    • The back of its skull was blown out.
    • The Beastman fell dead.

  • As the last Beastman fell, Felrick’s focus carried past the corpse into the mist.

    • He saw the daemon standing beyond it.
    • The immediate Beastman threats were gone.
    • The rest of the party also became aware of the daemon.

  • Those who had not already checked against fear did so.

    • Felrick was affected and dropped further into peril.
    • Nora, recently revived later, was not required to make the same check while still tactically unconscious at that exact moment.

  • Qavitrae used her turn to rescue Nora.

    • She ran forward into the temple.
    • She grabbed Nora by her armor and dragged her away from the daemon and the purple smoke.
    • Qavitrae succeeded on the Athletics check needed to move quickly while dragging Nora.
    • She pulled Nora back behind Wanda.
    • As she did, she warned the party about the daemon and told them to back up.

  • Qavitrae used smelling salts on Nora.

    • The smelling salts removed one level of peril.
    • Nora was no longer incapacitated.
    • She sat up, making strained, raspy sounds because of her fractured larynx.
    • Qavitrae told Nora not to look into the church.

  • The daemon took its turn after Nora was dragged out.

    • It walked forward with confident, seductive poise.
    • The remaining cultists in the temple had scattered toward the edges of the room.
    • Their attention was fixed raptly on the daemon.
    • The daemon stepped over burned corpses as it advanced.

  • The daemon whispered words the party did not understand.

    • The words carried supernatural dread.
    • It used a litany of hatred.
    • Some characters had already been affected by a litany of hatred from the Beastman, so the effect could not apply to them again in the same way.
    • The daemon targeted those who had not previously been afflicted.
    • The litany canceled the party’s remaining inspirational protection where it applied.

  • The session ended at the top of the next round.

    • The three Beastmen were dead.
    • The desecrated temple still contained purple smoke, the profane censers, scattered mutated cultists, and tentacles emerging from the pipe organ.
    • Nora was conscious again but seriously wounded and suffering from a fractured larynx.
    • Felrick had been wounded by a hoof strike and had nearly been knocked toward the pit.
    • Qavitrae had identified the new enemy as a lesser daemon of Slaanesh.
    • The daemon had advanced toward the party from inside the temple.
    • The party had begun considering whether they could draw the daemon away from the temple or retreat from it.