Infernum – Book of the Conqueror ©2005 Mongoose Publishing
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Contents Gareth Hanrahan Credits Contents Editor Richard Ford The Conqueror 2 Cover Art Introduction 13 Tony Parker To Rule in Hell 14 Logo & Cover Design Anne Stokes Basic Structures 32 Interior Illustrations Fortresses 39 Eric Bergeron, Chaminou, Ryan Horvath, Kythera, Tony Parker, Chad Sergesketter, Christophe Swal Dark Satanic Mills 83 Studio Manager Ian Barstow The Game of Lies 98 Production Director War in Hell 121 Alexander Fennell Conquests 146 Proofreading Sarah Quinnell Freedom in Chains 233 Playtesters Designer’s Notes 244 Tanya Bergen, Mark Billanie, Andre Chabot, Mark Gedak, Robert Hall, Daniel Haslam, Mark Howe, Log Sheets 246 Ryan Kelln, Trevor Kerslake, Patrick Kossmann, Kent Little, Alan Marson, Alan Moore, Murray Index 250 Perry, Mark Quennell, Daniel Scothorne, Mark Sizer, Sam Vail, Michael J Young License 256 Open Game Content & Copyright Information Infernum – Book of the Conqueror ©2005 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of non-Open Game Content of this work by any means without the written per mis sion of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Infernum – Book of the Conqueror is presented under the Open Game Licence. See page 256 for the text of the Open Game Licence. All text paragraphs and tables containing game mechanics and statistics derivative of Open Game Content are considered to be Open Game Content. All other signifi cant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are cop y right ed by Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Printed in China. 1 The Conqueror THE CONQUEROR ale had a voice in his head. The priest said that Cale told the voice that it was just a fancy and that it everyone had a voice, that of their guardian would go away. The voice whispered that he was the Cangel, and that it would tell them right from descendant of a demon, that it was the echo of that wrong. Cale’s voice spoke of power, conquest and demon in his blood and that it was Cale who would enslaving others. Once he told the other children in go away, not the voice. the village of his voice, and they had bullied him for it. Q Once the village children had gathered wood for the The sorceress had eyes that were yellow and slitted fi re and fed the animals and done all the other things like a cat, but bore no other physical sign of her that there were to do in the village, they would fi ght taint. She threw herself against the bars of the with sticks and play at being knights. Cale had seen a cage in fury once more and screamed at Theo. He knight once, in the town at feast-day. He wore shining understood fragments of her speech, a bastard mix armour and rode a great charger and seemed the of French and Arabic, but it was the nonsensical proudest and greatest hero in all the rambling and invocation of a demon. The only thing world, like the saints in the stories she invoked, however, were the other sorcerers in the who crushed the devil-serpents cages. Madmen, visionaries and diabolists gathered under their heel. Like all the other from Constantinople to Jerusalem and Malta began boys in the village, he dreamed of muttering and shouting. The din was a cacophony; being a knight more than anything Theo steeled himself to listen and endure the noise, else in the world. for he knew he would soon face far worse. The voice mocked these dreams, One of them dared to actually begin a magical rite, saying that he was tainted by the scraping symbols onto a wall with a scrap of bone devil and that his soul was doomed. and muttering a formula. Theo reacted quickly, as he When he confessed these dreams to had been trained, by smashing his mailed fi st into the the priest, the old father laughed and sorcerer’s face. The old man collapsed to the fl oor. said that the voice was just a fancy of the young. Far above him, the church bell sounded, marking the end of his watch. The door opened as the bell struck a fi nal time and Brother Charles entered the dungeon. The monk held a small monstrance in his hands, containing a holy relic. Reverently, the monk held the monstrance out and exposed its contents to the air. For a moment, there was a smell like jasmine, then the room fi lled with an ungodly stench that made the monk gag. Theo carefully removed the monstrance from Charles’ hands and closed it. The smell vanished instantly. ‘What does that prove, brother?’ ‘The taint of these damned sorcerers is far more intense when they are all gathered in one place.’ ‘Is it enough to trick the Enemy?’ ‘We shall see, but the reaction of the relic is a… favourable omen. The maw of Hell will see only the evil we have cloaked ourselves with, and not the true steel concealed within.’ 2 The Conqueror The realised the sorcerers had stopped moaning and Q shouting. They were listening and they were scared. Brother Charles noticed it too. ‘They discern our true It was the night before the departure. The monks had purpose and fear the terrible wound we shall infl ict learned much over the months since Tobias de Lyons on Hell.’ had conceived of the grand plan. The castle had been fortifi ed and stocked to withstand a hundred sieges. That, thought Theo, or they’re just as scared of Theo could only guess what they were thinking back damnation as we are. in Christendom with the strange requests for supplies and tools. The order had kept their purpose a secret Q from all but a few; the project involved consorting with sorcerers and demons and others feared that such Five years later, the priest led the village in trying to a direct attack would bring about the Apocalypse. stone Cale to death. That was after the signs of the taint had become clearer, when his hands had become Theo sat on a hillside and watched the sun go down. claws and the fi rst signs of the tail had begun to show. As it slipped below the horizon, he fancied that it He fl ed into the mountains, running faster and for glittered off the sea. Somewhere in the west, there longer than any true man could have. The deeper he was the Mediterranean, where the ships could carry drew upon the taint in his blood, he realised, the more him home. ‘Oh Lord,’ he muttered, ‘let this cup pass the taint became part of him. The voice could speak from my lips’, but there was little apprehension in his clearly to him now. soul. A terrible sense of purpose fi lled him. The hellgout will begin soon. You’re too close to the A hot, sulphurous wind blew into his face. It was demonic to stay in the mortal realm. starting. ‘Who are you?’ asked Cale. Q I told you. I’m the demon in you. Your ancestor was a ‘Skeee, a twisting,’ gibbered Yrich. The stalker’s demoness, a succubus. The demon blood runs strong mouth was a cone of cockroaches that whispered in within you, strong enough to manifest. You’re going unison. It pointed with its lesser left arm towards the to Hell, Cale, and I’m your only chance of survival. storm on the horizon. It was the fi ve hundred and twelfth year of the Infernum and the Houses were ‘You are trying to frighten me and to tempt me,’ he once again at war. Yrich and its broodmates were replied, momentarily remembering his dreams of former soldiers of House Zethu, who had fl ed the being a knight in shining armour. army of the Unveilers as it crumbled before the might of the Sturrach onslaught. I do not need to tempt you – you were lost from the moment you were born. As for frightening you, child, ‘Sweetmeats,’ rumbled a hulk. Wires and cables hung I have no need to do that. There are things far worse from its misshapen body, the legacy of failed Zethu than me, waiting for you. attempts to augment its already prodigious strength. A wide grin spread across its massive jaw, then There were shouts from lower down the mountain vanished abruptly. ‘Unless it’s a demonjack. Cursed slopes. He saw the bobbing lights of torches down demonjacks. No more cages.’ in the valley below. One of the village trackers found his trail. Something inside his mind – or his blood The other dozen demons grunted and roared in – twitched and he suddenly wanted to tear them apart. agreement. The war had driven the fi nal wedge He could see them in the dark now, as clear as if it between House Zethu and their erstwhile faustian was noon. allies in House Malthus and now they all bore a burning hatred for the arrogant mortal sorcerers. He still had enough self-control left to turn away and Many of them remembered bindings and warding start scrambling up the slope. circles. Yrich leapt into the air to attract the attention of its companions. The hellgout claimed him that night. Hell rose up and swallowed half the mountainside, a devil’s bite that ‘A hunt, a hunt. If ‘tis a demonjack, then we swarm would be remembered in local legend for centuries. him and peel him and show him his true place here. If ‘tis a sweetmeat, then we feast and then squeeze and 3 The Conqueror then feast some more. Are you covenanted to this, my desire to survive rose up in him, overcoming all broodmates?’ thoughts of despair or suicide or throwing himself at the mercy of the cosmos.