Potestas corruptionis

 From the journal of Johanna Schwarz, Witch hunter general

17. Vorgeheim, 2500

I do not know if I should consider us blessed or cursed by the Fates. Tonight we came so close to losing everything, to actively contributing to the utter corruption of Salzenmund and possibly the entirety of Norland. And yet, here we are, one vital step closer to ridding our land of one of the greatest evils it has faced. Fate is like a playful wind, turning this way and that on a whim. If it wasn't for the intransigence of wizards, we would be a lot safer.

Returning to Salzenmund, we had several decisions to make. Firstly, we needed to agree on how to handle our "benefactor", the dowager baroness. Happily, we were all in agreement that she was not to be trusted, as she seemed far too keen on finding the Books of Nagash. However, we were, at least purportedly, on a mission for her, to collect information about the secret library's whereabouts. And from my dealings with her, I feel certain that should we go to meet her at the castle, we would nary leave there without divulging everything we know - if we would be allowed to leave at all. So we all agreed to act on our information before informing her.

This was made more difficult when we noticed that our townhouse was being watched. Guardsmen, undoubtedly from the castle, were hiding out in alleyways and standing on corners, keeping us under watch.

Thankfully, we are a resourceful group. We headed out, on our way to the Orrery, but stopped by a nearby tavern. Sure enough, we saw the guards following us. While the rest of us swiftly slipped out the back, Sunniva stayed behind, and with her prodigous gift of spouting confusing words, managed to dumbfound the guards for a while, after which she slipped away and lost them in the crowds. When she joined up with the rest of us, we were free of lingering shadows.

Approaching the Orrery, I somehow saw it in a new light. Knowing what I now know, the sight of the impressive building fills me with trepidation. Hidden within, we knew there is a trove of knowledge so dangerous it could spell the doom of our world. And yet, at the same time it is the seat of a powerful, and apparently honorable wizards' guild.

We wasted no time demanding to see the head wizard, Stiglitz. We had decided beforehand that in order to gain access to the forbidden parts of the Orrery, we would have to take a chance, and trust him with our knowledge of the library, its contents and location. Meeting us in his office filled with arcane books and trinkets, he was as gruff and arrogant as usual. However, when I told him we had gleaned information about the library, that it is located in his own inner sanctum, and that it contains the Books of Nagash, the most sought after tomes of Chaos in existence, I could see he was visibly shaken. I explained that we needed access to the inner parts of the Orrery, to find the entrance to the library, to extract the books and destroy them. My heart skipped a beat as I uttered the words. Would I spy in his eyes the same greedy gleam I have seen in others?

Thank the gods, Stiglitz is a true wizard. He knows the dangers such information poses, especially to one such as him. Not only did he agree to give us access, he told us he would remove himself and all of his associates from the Orrery for the duration of our search. He told us he wanted no knowledge of the library's precise whereabouts, and did not want to come near its corrupting contents. My heart overflowed with gratitude. At last, a sign that not all are prone to heedless corruption. It is so rare to find such people in these times. They seem to be in meagre supply. I hope the realm will enjoy master Stiglitz's services for a long time! We will surely need it!

He gave us all amulets to wear during our search of the Orrery, explaining that without them, we would be burned to a crisp by the many arcane defenses the astromancers have placed on their sanctum. Then he gathered his people, and prepared to leave us alone, but not before whispering to me that I must keep a wary eye on Eldur, as he would surely be prone to feel the tantalizing lure of the corruption we were seeking out. He was only too right, it would turn out.

We had, finally, deciphered the many ramblings of the architect behind the Orrery, the brilliant, but unfortunately hopelessly crazy Gus Terhege:

Follow the seafarer's mark

There, the heavens hold their breath

They watch the stars, but miss the truth beneath

Seek the gears, not the heavens

A door within the spiral

Hidden behind time's hand

No light finds it

But shadow casts the way

The gears grind the lock

A name whispered opens the way

Yet silence can shatter it

We started our search at the tower's pinnacle, but quickly realized that the machinery driving the massive planetary orrery is hidden in the base of the tower. Walking down the stairs felt oddly fitting, like our whole quest has been a descent into the darkest pits of corruption. And now we were on the threshold to the possibly deepest of them all. My sombre mood was only intensified on the way down. Sunniva pulled me aside, worry written broad all over her face.

"I... I am worried about my brother", she said.

"You fear he will be influenced by what we are about to find?"

"Yes. I want you to promise me something."

"Name it, and if it is in my power, it shall be so."

"If he falls, can you....can you do what must be done?"

My heart nearly broke as I looked into her face. Sunniva is usually so guarded, so good at presenting a facade to the world. That was all gone now, leaving only the naked fear and sorrow. She bit her lip, choking back a sob.

"Only, I...I don't know if I will have it in me...".

I was hard pressed to answer. I know all too well the feelings she had - was that not exactly what I went through with Wilfred? My own flesh and blood. What bravery she showed, to admit this!

I placed my hand on her shoulder, looked in her eye, and with as much steadfastness and compassion I could muster, gave her answer.

"Yes. I swear it. If he falls, I will do my duty. To you, and to the realm. Though my heart would break."

She had no words then, only nodded, and then swiftly picked up her pace down the winding stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, a short corridor opened to several doors. Most lead to various storage rooms, but one opened up into a massive, cylindrical hall, the heart of the Orrery. A gigantic pillar with a winding spiral sat in the middle of the room, reaching all the way to the ceiling maybe 60 feet above us. The whole pillar was riddled with a combination of arcane symbols and mechanical gears. Various lights hung in the air at various heights, casting strange shadows that moved as the pillar slowly turned.

The rhyme we had puzzled out gave clear indication that the key was finding a timepiece, and the shadow it casts. We quickly discovered a large clock-contraption, but the different lights in the chamber meant it cast confusing shadows, none of which pointed to a door.

However, once we found the controls to the mechanism, and figured out how to work them, we were able to work out the riddle. After much trying and failing, we managed to position the column, clock and all in manner that the lights were all shaded except one, which shone directly at the clock, sending a clear-cut shadow to one wall. An lo! what seemed like the shade of a door appeared in the brickwork.

My heart racing, I watched as Eldur pulled out the cursed mirror we had found. Holding it up, a doorway clearly manifested on the wall, as the shadow was reflected in the mirror. We gathered about the shadow-door. All of us were grim-faced. We knew that what awaited us could well be our doom.

Loudly, I shouted the unlocking phrase we had discovered at Pallidus' cursed fountain: "Atramentum Arcanum!"

With an unholy shriek, as if a whole room full of rusted hinges moved at once, the wall started moving, and a doorway opened.

Beyond we could see only shadow, and a hallway, seeming older than ages, and a foreboding feeling came over me that I have only felt once before: When ascending Malice's warped ziggurat.

The die was cast - we steeled ourselves and marched into the unknown. As we entered the hallway, a cold feeling gripped us, a feeling like we were no longer in the world we knew, but on some other, malefic plane.

The corridor led to a huge hall, circular in shape, and domed. Walking into it, I could feel tendrils of corruption gnawing at my soul. We were in the heart of darkness, the horrific secret library itself.

Along one wall was a massive stone throne. Seated on it, an ages-old skeletal figure with a dark, ominous metal crown on its head. Off to the side of the throne was an ancient war-chariot, the like of which I've only seen in paintings and books from long, long ago. The other part of the hall was taken up by nine massive stone slabs, upon which rested massive, skin-bound tomes.

I do not possess the sight of wizards, but even I could sense that both the crown and the books radiated pure, unadultered chaotic energy. Behind the slabs were shelves filled with other scrolls and books.We had found our goal, but it was more than we though. Not only the resting place of the cursed Books of Nagash, but also, it would seem, the final resting place of the necromancer-king Pallidus!

Eldur told us that the books were clearly warded in some way magically, and that there was some sort of mystical presence permeating the whole room.

The figure on the throne seemed inert though, but we did not trust that. Torgil loosed an elven arrow at the old rotted skull. It pierced it clean through, and sent the crown clattering to the floor, where it lay, darkly gleaming in the light of our lanterns. The corpse of Pallidus, though, seemed not animate, thankfully.

Our goal has all the while been to destroy the books. Ward or no, that was what we must try to do. I pulled out my blessed Sigmarite pistol and loosed a bullet at one of the tomes. The bullet seemed only to graze the skin of the book, but the reaction was immediate. Rising from the dust, nine wraithlike warriors sprang up, and with unearthly howls charged at us.

The fight was frenzied. We gave it all we could possibly give, and yet were hard pressed. The wraiths outnumbered us, and were inhumanly fast. Worse still, when they touched us, a grave chill descended on us, numbing our limbs and making fighting nearly impossible. And yet, we somehow managed to turn the tide.

Yet when we felt that victory could be in our grasp, disaster struck. Oh, the folly and weakness of wizards! Eldur, having stayed out of reach by flying up on fiery wings, suddenly swooped down. I could only stare, dumbfounded as he picked up from the floor the cursed crown. The effect was immediate, and horrifying. He stopped in mid-flight, and with a mad gleam placed the crown on his head. A pulse of dark energy swept through the chamber, and Eldur started to change before our eyes, turning wraithlike and malevolent, his fiery red dimming into the greenish tinge of chaos.

Sparing one sad look at Sunniva, I aimed my pistol straight at him and fired. But the bullet passed through, striking the wall behind him. With a cry, Sunniva started running towards him, heedless of the danger from the remaining warrior-wraiths.

"Brother! Are you in there? You must resist!"

As I put yet another bullet through Eldur's now grinning face, I could feel the room changing. The walls started to fade, revealing nothing but an unfathomable chaotic swirl. Soon, we would be lost in a hellish dimension, and Pallidus would be loosed on the world.

Yet as all seemed to be lost, it seemed a small, fiery spark awoke in Eldur's eyes at the sound of his sister's pleading voice. Turning, slowly, as if in a trance, seeming to fight with every move, he clasped the crown with both hands and with a rending sound, tore it from his head. As it clattered to the ground, he collapsed to the floor, once more solid, once more Eldur.

With the crown removed, the room once more solidified, and the nightmarish chaos swirling behind the walls disappeared. Eldur's narrow escape from possession seemed to give us the energy we needed to finally dispatch the warrior wraiths. Not a moment too soon. Most of us were at death's door and blood had spattered all over the floor of the chamber.

Rage burning in my throat, I charged over to where Eldur lay, looking bewildered. With a swift blow I knocked him cold, and he collapsed.

Taking stock, we soon concluded that there is no method we have, that actually can damage the unholy books. We soon agreed that we could not tarry. Viktor carrying the slumped form of Eldur, we hastily moved out of the cursed crypt, back into the basement of the Orrery. We slammed the door shut behind us, and reset the mechanism of the pillar, so no trace remained to give anyone a clue to where the doorway was located. Of course, we also possess the mirror, which is the only way to actually see the portal.

Hastily, we departed the Orrery, taking care to see that we were not being watched. However, returning to our townhouse, we had another unwelcome surprise. Uri, the Gaussers' spymaster and house wizard, was waiting for us. With little choice, we invited him in.

He is far too intelligent to try to feed weak stories, so we tried a variant, stripped-down version of the truth. We said we had found where the library was, but warned that they indeed did contain the infamous Books of Nagash. As I laid it out for him, I had hoped he would be of master Stiglitz' caliber, yet I was sorely disappointed. He is a guarded man, yet deep in his eyes, I detected the same gleam of raw ambition and greed I have seen before, in people too heedless and too eager to seek out the powers of corruption. I knew immediately that he could not be trusted. That also meant that we were in imminent danger. For if he was not to be trusted, then his mistress would soon be all over us. I have no doubt that should she set her claws in us, she would wring our secrets from us by any means necessary.

Mustering my most diplomatic face, I promised Uri we would come to the dowager Baroness Ingrid next day, early morning, to share our findings. Seemingly mollified, he left, but we saw clearly that the guards watching our house were back, and with friends to boot. Damn and blast the fickle nature of wizards!

We were out of time, and out of options. We had to leave immediately. Stealing a rowing boat, we snuck out the back, and was halfway across the lake before the guards could respond. Losing them in the maze of docklands was an easy task, especially with the knowledge Johan has of the city's more seedy parts.

18. Vorgeheim, 2500

While most of us lay low at one of his "safe houses" at the docks, me, Sunniva and Eldur snuck back to the Orrery, to speak to the astromancers, and plead with them to help destroy the books. They were still supportive of our cause, but wanted as little to do with the library as possible. Also, they did not possess the type of magic needed to destroy such vile artifacts. However, they did have cases we could use to transport them out, shielding those around them from most of the corrupting influences, and masking their immense arcane aura.

However, we dared not fetch the books now, as we still do not have the means of their destruction. Instead, we promised to come back to get them when we had figured out how to rid the world of them for good.

Returning to our hideout, Johan could inform us that me, and they as my "associates" were now wanted fugitives - suspected, in a howling case of irony, of "dealings with corrupt forces" and "heresy".

Staying in the city would be far too risky. After some deliberation, we agreed that Johan would use his contacts to secure passage out on a smuggler's boat, as soon as possible.

That evening, we crept into the dank, musty hold of a river barge. It had a hollow bottom, and boxes and barrels were placed atop the small space we crawled into, hiding us from view. As we lay in the smelly hold, we could hear river wardens entering the boat, inspecting the good. My heart raced. If we were discovered, we would have little hope of escape. But corruption - of the more mundane sort - for once played in our favor, as some coin seemed to exchange hands, and the wardens left the barge with no further inspection.

Late at night, we were set ashore well outside the city, creeping into the forest to make our outlaw's camp among the trees.

19. Vorgeheim, 2500

I know I have been less than thrilled by most wizards of late. With good reason, in my own opinion. However, Eldur may have a way of redeeming himself from the catastrophe in Pallidus' crypt. He knows of a powerful magical ritual, which can be used to destroy the books!

However, this ritual is taxing in the extreme, and we are faced with a quandary: The spell requires a massive swirl of magical energy, and such are rare in supply. We could, theoretically, perform it by the Orrery, as it is situated on a nexus of magical forces. However, it is timeconsuming and extremely un-subtle. Apparently, it entails summoning a gigantic being of pure magical flame. We would not be able to do that in the middle of a bustling city!

We have two other options, none of them very appealing: The site where Malice's ziggurat stood, at Wreckers' point, is such a nexus of magic as is needed. However, that would mean transporting the noxious books overland through territory currently occupied by marauding norse chaos forces. Not an attractive prospect.

The other option has a more morally dubious side to it. Apparently, the magical winds of Aqshy coalesce around large centers of population, where fire is frequently used. If such a place could be put to the torch, the amassed conflagration would be equivalent to a magical nexus, for a flame wizard. Put more simply: If we burn an entire village to the ground, the ritual can be performed.

Horrifying as it is, the group after a long discussion comes to the conclusion that burning a village is the least unfavorable option, as long as we can make sure to evacuate the populace.

That leaves only the small matter of obtaining the books, getting them out of Salzenmund undiscovered, and getting them to a village, which we must then burn.

21. Vorgeheim, 2500

Johan's shadowy contacts once more prove useful. He has managed to gain contact with the infamous smugglers' group called the Espen Gang. They have a foolproof way of smuggling a small group into the city and out again. The price, however, is steep: 400 gold coins! But apparently, that means we can be virtually guaranteed full discretion, and a large chance of success.

The plan is formed: Sunniva, Viktor, Torgil and Johan will be smuggled in to Salzenmund, proceed to the Orrery, collect the books, in protective caskets, and then be smuggled out again.

Meanwhile, me and Eldur will secure a separate river barge. When we meet up again, we will use this barge to travel up river to a small village we think will be fit for our horrible purpose. It brings us closer to the front lines, and who knows how the war is currently faring, but maybe that can work to our advantage somehow? We shall see.

22. Vorgeheim, 2500

The die is cast. Tonight, we met up with the shifty smugglers of the Espen gang. Our four chosen agents were then stuffed into barrels, which were then strapped to a boat, below the water line. As I watched the boat gliding out into the river, I considered myself blessed for not being one of those going.

Now we can only cross our fingers and pray that their mission is a success.