As so often, while the spirit and even the flesh were willing and eager to accomplish their stated goal of tearing down the edifice of wicked darkness, reality was not so accommodating. In fact, the entire tower stood defiant against all their attempts, the doors of heavy stone not even budging, the walls not taking a single crack despite their best efforts. Trying to draw upon Lady Sunna’s power only gave Lorgar a headache, further cementing just how wicked this structure must be and what evil it must radiate into its environment, given its power to deny the influence of his righteous lady.

They tried everything, from using a simple hammer to bash through the stone to picking up a fallen tree trunk, strapping a rock to one side and using it as an improvised ram, and yet, the door stood defiantly. Their anger, their impotent rage, could only bubble beneath the surface, as trying to channel it outward and use it to tear down the tower only ended in failure.

Their efforts were halted when they heard sounds coming closer, sounds they could soon identify as the movement of people. Given the close proximity to the Tower of Evil, their initial reaction was to take cover, aware that surprise was a vital part in any engagement, as was the ability to dictate if or when the engagement happened at all. Sadly, the tower was built into an open quarry with only one entrance, meaning the only place to hide was behind the tower itself, as galling as that was. Additionally, the dark stone made it nigh impossible to remain hidden while leaning around the tower, meaning they wouldn’t be able to see their opponent before engaging.

The combination of these factors meant that they couldn’t do the smart thing, so they did the opposite, demonstrating their dominance and power while standing right out in the open, their weapons readied but not yet drawn, feigning amity.

It didn’t take long for the group they had heard to step through the wall separating the quarry from the rest of the world. The incoming group consisted of five people, four male and one female, all of whom were shrouded in a faint aura of power. Not enough power to intimidate Lorgar or his companions, but enough to make them a little wary. Though when they focused on one of these five, the tallest of them, Lorgar had to control himself or he might have charged him on pure reflex. The power around that guy was tinged with the vileness of the insane sorceress Morgana, the stench making it difficult to control his hatred.

“Well, howdy,” the oldest and apparent leader of the five greeted them, sounding relaxed and almost somewhat lackadaisical. “What brings you fine gentlemen to these parts?”

“We are looking for someone.” Helos replied after realising that their leader was keeping quiet to keep control of his anger, “Can you tell us what you know about this tower?” he asked, noticing a brief exchange of looks between the other group, indicating that they obviously knew something. It would be interesting to hear what they would be willing to share.

“The tower just appeared one day, we noticed the glowing eye-thingy up top from across town,” the guy who had spoken earlier replied, his voice still relaxed, “I’d guess that somebody magicked it into existence, though I have no idea how that’d work, not my pint of ale. Why are you looking for them anyway? I mean, I’d think we’d have seen you if you were local, so I doubt you just happened to see this tower and came here because you are interested.”

“No, we are not local, as you have surmised. We are searching for them for our own reasons. Can you tell me anything about them?” Helos probed, uncertain if stating their hostile intent would be wise, given that they had their back to the wall and Lorgar’s divinely gifted powers were suppressed.

“They’ve left a while back,” the oldest guy replied, “So you might want to trot on, if you are so interested in talking to them.” his words were almost enough to shatter Lorgar’s composure and start a fight but the bearer of Lady Sunna’s word managed to control himself. But, given the obvious connection between the wicked Sorceress and this group, staying here and talking was clearly useless.

“We will leave,” Lorgar ground out, barely managing to keep himself from attacking the other group. But their time would come. Nobody was allowed to mock Lady Sunna’s word, or its bearers.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Once again, Search Group One was walking back towards Jademoon Tower. Part of it was due to a strange feeling Murray was having, another part was because Daniel and Samantha wanted to check some of the lessons they had been working on and, maybe, find another one in the fairly extensive library. However, when they got somewhat close to the tower, they could hear strange sounds, the bashing of a heavy object against rock and loud, angry swearing, making them vigilant.

Aware that they might be walking into a fight, they readied themself, though their weapons remained sheathed. Starting a fight needlessly could readily see one of them grievously injured or even killed, a risk they weren’t willing to take on a whim.

The sounds stopped when their group got closer to the tower, maybe when the people causing the sounds heard their approach, ratcheting up the vigilance to another level.

“They are near the door,” Daniel quietly told the others, having ascertained this with a subtle spell he had recently learned from the tower’s library. “And there’s a broken ram lying nearby, I don’t think they can get into the tower,” he added, a frown now on his face.

“Troublesome,” Jack muttered, uncertain what was going on and almost certain that he didn’t want to get involved in this sort of mess.

When they made their way past the wall keeping the forest out of the quarry, they briefly studied the other group. Like theirs, it was a group of five, and all five of them looked like seasoned fighters. The most significant difference between the groups was that one of their group was obviously a Legacy, and a fairly impressive one at that. Maybe it was due to the centaur body, maybe the guy was just naturally massive, whatever way one looked at it, the guy was impressive and somewhat intimidating. An impression not eased by the fact that he was glaring at Murray, their tallest and physically strongest member.

Trying to defuse the situation and aware that combat would most likely end in serious damage to both groups, Jack decided to try diplomacy. The exchange between him and one of the guys following the massive centaur, who kept glaring at Murray, was somewhat civil, ending with the other group taking their leave, planning to follow after Jade Morgana and her group. Not that it would be easy, given that group’s ability to teleport, but Jack wasn’t about to help these strange people, especially not after he had noticed some markings on the centaur’s armour.

“What do you think?” Daniel asked, once they were somewhat confident that their adversaries were no longer in range to hear them.

“Did you notice? Swastikas on the armour, glaring at the one black guy in our group? I don’t think I want to get closer to those guys, there’s something seriously wrong with them,” Jack admitted, uncertain if avoiding a fight had been the wise choice. Who knew if these five would try to force the issue at a later date, when they had the advantage?

“Not sure if those were supposed to be Swastikas or something else. If I recall correctly, the symbol was originally a Germanic one, I think something to do with victory and the sun or something like that,” Daniel explained, but given their lack of information, it was impossible to say one way or the other.

“We probably should try to get a message to Jade, just in case. Having five people, Nazis or not, hunt you can’t be a good thing,” Samantha suggested, looking at the tower, noticing a few scuff marks on the otherwise smooth and tidy exterior. “They were also barred from the tower, I’m not sure what that means, and they were trying to get inside,” she added, something made abundantly clear by the ram still lying near the door.

Curious if the seal only affected that other group or if everyone was locked out, Samantha walked to the door, easily pushing it open and entering the tower. Now, they only had to figure out how to send their message and what to do about these five weirdos.

Elsewhere, far beyond the boundaries of Terra, or Mundus for that matter, the event in question had attracted some attention. Namely, the attention of two ancient entities, who were now in an argument. Both had manifested in the Arbitration Space kept for such arguments, forcing both to use words instead of more direct measures, not that either of these entities would have resorted to direct measures. Their spat had gone on for aeons and, most likely, would continue on for a long time. Long, even for beings like them.

As was almost always the case, neither of them was willing to budge. Both readily made use of loopholes in the agreements negotiated between numerous entities like them, occasionally even finding new loopholes entirely to slip through. Nothing would be resolved here, and so, as always, the conflict was pushed back into the mortal coil, where their respective agents were nudged on specific paths. While neither of them could take action outright, influencing things was allowed, poking their agents and prodding them, whispering in the right ears at the right times, all within the letter of their agreements, even if their spirit was twisted and bend to the point that it would scream if it had a mouth.

Just like they always did.