[Chapter 1: The Voyage of the Sorcerer]

The war between the Imperium and the allied Vyrgothian Kingdoms had raged

for years. Beginning as minor disputes over border territories, the conflict

had swiftly escalated into a full-scale bloody war, a vast series of epic

campaigns, fervently perpetua ted by the Emperor Koord and the Over-King of

Vyrgothia, both eager to smite their traditional ancestral foes and to win

great glory and the adulation of their people by seizing victory in battle.

Recent months had seen the forces of the Imperium display a staggering degree

of tactical mastery and battle prowess, contemptuously crushing the Vyrgothian

armies in a series of great battles, 'til at last, following the slaughterous

Rout of the Fields of Kai-Vorg, The Empire's finest fighting force, the fame

d and far-feared Legion of the Ebon Tiger, stood unopposed not five day's

march from mighty Gul-Kothoth, the greatest and most ancient fortress-city in

all the Vyrgothian kingdoms. The Legion of the Ebon Tiger could not easily

count their numerous and r esounding victories, and their commander, the

legendary warlord Baalthus Vane, made it clear to the Emperor that he was

eager to press on deep into the enemy's lands and seize the prize which

awaited him; the siege and capture of ancient Gul-Kothoth! And yet the Emperor

Koord did not order the Legion to march, for disturbing information had of

late been relayed to him by his spies in the Vyrgothian Royal Court... Dire

rumours abounded that the Vyrgothian mages had at last discovered the ancient

arcane r ites which would unlock the aeons-fettered power of the dread

Obsidian Crown, a fearsome mystical artefact countless thousands of years old,

a black-jewelled circlet believed on