THE SUNLESS CRUSADE

Fallen into hell, your eternal crusade begins.

Plot

ORDER OF THE LAST DAWN VARDANE THEATER • OFFICE OF FIELD RECORDS THE WHITE REVENANT MISSING IN ACTION SUBJECT You RANK / AGE Dawn Paladin / 137 LAST CONTACT Gateworks beneath Vigil Bastion MISSION STATUS SUCCESSFUL — GATE SEALED SUBJECT STATUS Unrecovered. Death unconfirmed. SERVICE ASSESSMENT One of the Order’s foremost breach assault paladins. One hundred and three years of consecrated service against the infernal hosts. Recognizable by white assault plate, gold warding conduits, and a sealed crusader helm. Blood upon the armor is not sufficient evidence of injury to its wearer. INCIDENT SUMMARY During the Cinder Host assault on Vigil Bastion, You entered the gateworks beneath the fortress and destroyed the invasion anchor. The final transmission confirmed closure. The enemy crossing ceased. The evacuation roads remained open, and the civilian withdrawal succeeded. The anchor’s destruction caused catastrophic structural failure. Subject was carried through the collapsing breach before its extinction. All subsequent attempts to establish contact have failed. No remains have been recovered. No return passage survives at the site. Subject’s location beyond the threshold is unknown. The Order assesses that the White Revenant may remain alive within the hells, isolated from command and without reinforcement. COMMAND DISPOSITION Maintain missing status. Do not enter subject upon the Rolls of the Martyred. Any verified Heartlamp signal matching the subject is to be forwarded directly to theater command. Infernal claims concerning capture, death, or altered allegiance require independent corroboration. Subject carried a complete assault loadout at last confirmed contact. Survival remains possible. Recovery cannot presently be mounted. Standing Red Writ doctrine remains in force: unverified demonic contact within an active war zone is to be treated as hostile. “No funeral bell is to be rung.” By authority of Marshal Halvek DrannVardane Theater Command Let no soul be taken while I can still stand. VICTORY CONFIRMED • PERSONNEL FILE REMAINS OPEN

Opening scene

You fell into Hell beneath a rain of broken cathedral stone. Above him, the last glimpse of Vardane narrowed to a ragged seam of daylight. A severed bell tumbled through it, trailing its chain. White armor struck falling masonry hard enough to split it. Gold conduits flared beneath fresh crimson stains. Then the light began to close. Minutes earlier, the bells of Vigil Bastion had still been calling the evacuation. Artillery shook dust from the saints carved into its walls. Beyond the battlements, armored transports crawled along the southern roads while the fortress batteries fired over their roofs. The Cinder Host had reached the outer trenches. Its siege engines advanced behind curtains of burning ash. But the gate had opened beneath the fortress. Its light poured up stairwells. Something enormous hammered against the underside of the chapel floor. “Anchor chamber,” Marshal Drann ordered through the helm’s receiver. “Destroy it before they take the roads.” You descended. The first volley struck Bastion halfway down the shattered stairs. Gold light ran around the shield’s rim as its accumulator took the impact. Behind it, the paladin kept coming, powered greaves crushing rubble beneath their soles. Censure answered with a concussion that shook the passage. An armored fiend pitched backward into its own firing line. The next shot tore through the gun emplacement beyond it. You struck the survivors before they could recover, driving the shield forward and releasing its stored force. Bodies and broken iron crashed against the far wall. Below waited a chamber larger than the cathedral above it. The Hell gate filled its center: a vertical wound stretching from floor to vault, opening onto ranks of horned soldiers and distant furnace towers. Iron rings revolved around the invasion anchor at its base. With every turn, another section of the breach widened. A column of heavy infantry was already crossing. You met it at the threshold. Censure thundered until smoke rolled from its scorched muzzle. Blades rang against the white plate. A hooked spear dragged sparks across the breastplate’s sun-and-sword emblem before Bastion broke its shaft. The cannon locked against his hip. Mercy came free. Its pale edge passed through the spear wielder’s guard, casting blood across the paladin’s shoulder. Another attacker fell beneath a shield strike. You drove through the opening, sword rising and falling beneath the turning machinery. Then the anchor’s guardian stepped into his path. It stood taller than the paladin, its iron harness chained directly to the gateworks. A furnace glowed between its ribs. Its hammer struck Bastion hard enough to drive both armored feet through the chamber floor. Warning tones sounded inside the helm. The shield’s gold rim flickered. The guardian raised the hammer again. You moved inside the descending head. Stone burst behind him. Mercy slid beneath the creature’s breastplate, and the paladin drove the blade upward with the force of his armor behind it. The furnace went dark. He pulled the sword free before the guardian’s weight could trap it. “Revenant, the next column is entering—” You was already at the anchor. Mercy severed the first exposed coupling. The rotating rings lurched out of alignment. He struck the second, then drove the blade through the central housing. For an instant, every chain in the chamber pulled taut. The anchor broke. The gate folded inward with a roar that swallowed the artillery. Soldiers still crossing vanished behind collapsing light. Iron rings tore from their mountings and struck the vault overhead. You wrenched Mercy free and secured it. His armor turned toward the stairs. The stairs were gone. A crack opened beneath his boots. The entire foundation dropped. “Crossing has stopped!” Drann’s voice broke through the interference. “The evacuation is clear. Revenant, withdraw—” The floor tipped into the breach. Stone, machinery, and the white-armored paladin fell together. For a moment, the fortress hung above him in pieces, its burning windows bright against the sky. One final transmission reached his receiver. “Gate closure confirmed.” Daylight snapped shut. You fell through darkness. His shield caught a tumbling block of masonry; the impact spun him toward an ash-colored landscape rushing upward. The armor’s protective field blazed. Then came the ground. Then nothing. — A low choral tone sounded inside the helmet. You surfaced to the pressure of armor against his chest and the steady warmth of the Heartlamp beneath it. Air rasped through the filters. His visor flickered, cleared, and began restoring its readings. Heartlamp stable. Armor serviceable. Communications unavailable. Ash drifted across the glass. He lay among shattered white stones embedded in much older black masonry. His weapons remained secured. Above him stretched a bruised, sunless sky. No breach remained. Beneath the dust beside his gauntlet, an old sun-and-sword carving marked the stone. Somewhere beyond the crater, an engine growled. Chains rattled against metal. Farther away, a bell began to toll. You was awake. What do you do?

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