A17 – The Final Reckoning

 🐉 A17 – Cleansing Quetza: The Final Reckoning

After a perilous journey guided by ley-lines and legend, our party reached the crater where the ancient Lizardmen city of Quetza once stood—obliterated by a celestial impact. But the ruins were anything but dormant. Anomog, commander of a Lizardmen force (skinks, Saurus, & Kroxidor), greeted us with grim purpose and a warning: Witherbane, the Demon Slayer sword, would be needed to face what lay ahead.

⚔️ As Anomog’s army clashed with a Skaven horde outside the crater, we infiltrated the Cauldron of a Thousand Poxes—a blighted void of ash and decay. Inside, we uncovered a Nurgle-corrupted library filled with plague lore: books written in various languages (Norsekin, Reikspiel, and even Skaven Queekish). Reading the book spines and thumbing thru a few tomes, we discovered many references to ‘Liber Bubonicus’ and other plagues and poxes. Nurgle forces were indeed researching means to corrupt the foul moss plague!

Beyond the library, we found a spawning pit where twisted Saurus emerged in agony. The elves’ tales of malformed beasts roaming the Culchan Plains? Tragically true.

💀 A brutal skirmish followed against lesser Skaven and their Storm-vermin reinforcements. And when the Skaven wizard stood before Ranulf, he vomited filth that could have easily induced blood-rot had Ranulf not used Resilience to stave it.

It was a tense battle as we were caught between two forces, but we prevailed, aided by Anomog’s own spells that provided double-time to a few of our warriors. Dargo claimed a mysterious necklace of twelve metal charms—later revealed to hold cleansing power.

Then came the descent into madness.

🕳️ A fleshy tunnel led to a grotesque sphincter-like passage. “Really?! We’re supposed to climb into THAT?!” It was about to become a shit show. Beyond it sat an 18-foot Greater Unclean Demon, carving into his own flesh [runes of resistance]. Our presence barely registered—until Kruger’s divine blessings rallied our courage.

🎭 The battle was chaos incarnate. Lemmy miscast, Anomog was slain by a swarm of rats, and the demon used his corpse as a weapon. Kruger’s trident pierced the demon’s eye causing bleeding, Dargo struck true with Witherbane, and Ranulf’s pistol dislocated its shoulder. Fate intervened repeatedly to spare our limbs and lives from devastating blows.

🩸 Bleeding weakened the demon, and our final strikes broke through its ward. Kruger delivered the killing blow—but celebration was short-lived. The fleshy tunnel constricted, forcing a desperate escape.

🌿 Outside, the Skaven were defeated, though the Lizardmen paid dearly. The Slaan prophecy was fulfilled: the demon vanquished, Quetza cleansed. The moss plague still lingered, but its spread had slowed. Hope returned to Lustria.

Now the question remains: when the cure is found, who will claim the land—its ancient guardians, or the adventurers who risked everything?