Part Three: Walking the Chaos Wastes
The Ubersreik Five are not the first to make a pilgrimage to the Citadel of Eternity. The route is littered with the remains and possessions of those who have attempted the journey before. As they begin their journey, they will encounter many unusual things …
CAIRN GATES
These landmarks, unchanging even in the ever-fluxsome Chaos Wastes, serve as guides to those undertaking the pilgrimage to the Citadel of Eternity. No matter how the land warps and reshapes beneath the gaze of the Dark Gods, the Cairn Gates lead the faithful onward.
The provenance of the Cairn Gates is rather more of a mystery. It is said that their first stones were laid by early pilgrims, eager to give thanks for safe journey and to lead others of their kind onwards to the Citadel of Eternity. And yet … who or what guided those first pilgrims so that they knew which path to mark? Was it the gods themselves? Or something stranger? After all, time flows strangely in the Chaos Wastes. It may be that those first pilgrims followed Cairn Gates they themselves had laid down in the distant past, or the unknowable future.
It might even be that there never were any pilgrims save the Ubersreik Five, and their efforts now have always been, echoing backwards and forwards across all that is – a perfect loop of cause and effect they are unable to break … ?
PILGRIM’S COINS
Caskets of small, peculiar coins can also be found scattered across the landscape. Forged of an unfamiliar – and unstable – metal, these are almost unknown in the civilised lands to the south, for they decay rapidly once removed from the distorting magics of the Chaos Wastes.
As with the Cairn Gates, precisely how they came to be is a matter of conjecture alone. Some scholars claim them a currency struck by a now-vanished civilisation. Others believe them relics of the secluded and xenophobic realm hidden in the Lustrian jungles. A handful even fear that they might be the work of the Chaos Gods, as some part of their unguessable agenda.
Whatever the truth, these Pilgrim’s Coins are a vital part of any quest to find the Citadel of Eternity, for they can be bartered for godly favour along the path. A wise traveller hoards them well, and spends them wisely.
WAYSTONE ALTARS
Though the conditions of the pilgrimage mean the Ubersreik Five must venture north with little more than makeshift weapons and their own innate skills, they will not want for weapons. The landscape is dotted with altars, in which can be found mighty armaments and powerful boons employed by those who have trod the paths before.
Such gifts are not free for the taking, however. To take up the arms of their predecessors, the Ubersreik Five must offer Pilgrim’s Coins to receive the altar’s bounty. The more coins the altar demands, the more powerful the gift to be found within …
CHEST OF TRIALS
By its very location in the Chaos Wastes, the pilgrimage of the Citadel of Eternity is fraught with peril. Barbaric northlanders and beastmen swarm the wilderness in search of blood, plunder and territory (and the skaven will surely follow the Ubersreik Five north, as they ever have before). And, of course, the Chaos Gods themselves have been known to cast a fitful eye upon the region, searching for entertainment to enliven their ennui-filled existence.
However, those seeking additional challenge while on their Pilgrimage can find it by means of the Chests of Trials. These relics appear at random – or perhaps at the divine wish of a bored deity. Opening a Chest of Trials draws the attention of a monstrous foe, ensorcelled to act as its guardian. Defeat the guardian, and the chest’s contents can be claimed!
