Echoes Beneath the Relic Stones

Journal entry from a Caedryn solider, name unknown.

SOL 35, Year 12 of the Broken Crown

They told us the relics were dormant—that the earth had cooled, the storms quieted, and the blood-price of the old war had

been paid in full. They were wrong... I was the third to step onto the stone at Khar-Valis. The others hesitated. Superstition, they said. But I’d seen it—the way the relic pulsed when the wind shifted, the way the ground warmed under iron boots. It’s not superstition if the dirt hums back at you. We weren’t alone. They came from the north slope—banners I didn’t recognize, helms cut like jagged glass, silent but sure. Another House. Maybe two. All of us sent here to do the same thing: hold the relic long enough to claim it. Or stop someone else from doing so. The briefing was clear: hold the ancient sites. Do not let the Aether reach the peak. But the briefing didn’t mention the way it bends your thoughts. Didn’t mention the way the clouds start circling low, or how the relics begin to whisper in languages only the dying seem to understand. Each relic site is a tether. Break one, and the others strain. Hold one, and you feel your skin itch with pressure that shouldn’t be there. No one is winning. The world is waking. And still—orders are orders...

Excerpt from taken from The Chronicles of Vaelthar

Scenario Setup

Players: 2–4

Objective

Control more Relic Sites than your opponents by the end of Round 5, or fulfill your secret objective.

Aether Counter

Begins at 3 instead of 1. Add +2 each round instead of +1. If the Aether Counter reaches 20, the battlefield collapses. No victor — only loss.

Relic Sites are placed equidistant between players and must be held uncontested for 1 full round to activate. Once activated, they pulse with Aether —

drawing more chaos to the field. Units standing on activated relics may gain Aether tokens... but at what cost?