[HQ Ignorance] Scene 50: Anzhur's HeroQuest: The Conversion of the Seshnelans

[Nic Hughes]

Aalmon looked around the city with eyes fresh from the horrors of the 
fields of the dead and for a while all seemed hopeless. Anzhur's seemed 
to be on the hardest path, as if he needed to prove something to himself 
by attacking their enemy where he was the strongest - the faith of the 
people in their Rokari religion. The big cavalryman dropped is prisoner 
for a while and having secured him pondered their situation. Sometimes 
he thought he understood his companions but at times like these he 
realised how different his upbringing had been from thiers, Anzhur 
seemed to look only for a resolution in the realms of prophesy and 
religion as was fitting for a man raised up to the wizards caste. Yet if 
the ex-warrior no longer thought like a man of direct action somebody 
had to try to take that role, or like a platoon on a frontal charge he 
would be left open and vulnerable on his flanks.

The life around him only reminded him the more of the horrors of undeath 
he had seen and the sure knowledge that those horrors would spread was 
almost too much for him. Yet he had cheated the demons of death before 
and what he had done then was his duty now. For despite all his clever 
tricks and the grace of the goddess he was still trained to do one 
thing, to be a messenger boy. Well now the people of the city needed to 
hear a message that they did not want to hear, just as Aalmon's own 
people had not wanted to hear of the approaching Kingdom of War.

He took a series of deep breaths and began to open himself to how the 
people of the city would be thinking and feeling, to be once again just 
a soldier in his mind. A soldier trapped by a plant army he cannot fight 
and led by a corrupt king so unvalorous that in the end he could not 
even defend himself from vermin. A soldier living in doubt, fearing not 
death so much as a path with no honour or valor that leads inexorably to 
a death of ignominy. Aalmon thought about it and then stood up with new 
resolve. A trapped and demoralised soldier can be useless or dangerous, 
yet if given a clear path to regain his honour and manhood he can be the 
most deadly and unstoppable force in the world. All Aalmon had to do was 
light the way to the path. If in this he aided his companion then all 
the better.

He gathered his thoughts and then with a few prayers gathered to himself 
the powers of the Twin Stars. The words of power that could persuade 
those who did not know the goddess. The power of  a dark secret revealed 
to the light. The subtle seduction of the chance of redemption of 
honour. He held up a torch and let its flame take on the power of the 
starfire, each flame in the world a fragment of the inferno to burn away 
whatever magics might hold sway over mens minds. Then he set out to give 
his message to the fighting men of the city - a message of horror and 
fear and yet one of hope. For against his story of horror and the proof 
in the form of his prisoner he could offer hope, for when the Devil 
rises all sane men put aside emnities and assail the Enemy and he could 
say with truth that the king of the werewolves would fight alongside 
them if they could find the courage to stand for life and God against 
the Devil that was arising in their own lands and which was desecrating 
their own honoured dead. As for the final proof, well then his tricks 
could help for while the last star still glimmered in the sky he could 
give the gift of vision.

He strode into the barracks in the manner of every sergeant that ever 
deserved his rank, as if he alone knew what was to happen and did not 
fear it. And when his prisoner had revealed the secrets of the foul army 
and he had spoken his own words of what he had seen he finished on the 
words of hope then stopped. For when a message is complete the messenger 
falls silent and awaits his fate.

Nic