Unwelcome guest

"I hear there's a vallorn in the heart of this wood." Darius swung his heavy broadsword up and down like a cleaver, hacking away at the husk's flesh. "I hear they eat the hearts of men and women and send the bodies to attack their familes."

Tersia laughed, Darius' fanciful stories always made her chuckle. "Yeah, and I hear it's a 100ft tall and spits fireballs out of its arse. Just shut up and keep fighting." she retorted.

Undettered Darious persisted "No but seriously, shouldn't the Navarr be doing this or something? I thought the Vallorn was their problem to sort out?"

"Oh, poor little cataphract... Do you want the Navarr to wipe your bum for you as well?" Her voice was louder now and some of the other soldiers joined in with the laughter.

"I joined up to kill orcs, not walking corpses" Darius persisted "all I'm saying is that this is dangerous work, we should..."

"No Darius! This? This is a bloody holiday!" Tersia shouted at him. "The Pillar and the Pegasus are in Reikos right now. They'll be up to their necks in Druj and facing a lot worse than this I'll wager. And yeah I wish we were with them... but not half as much as I wish you were with them right now."

There was more laughter from the rest of the regiment but it was cut short by a scream from the other side of the clearing. Someone had been foolish enough to let one of the husks reach him and was paying the price.

It might not be the Druj exactly, but Dairus was right about one thing. Clearing Vallorn infestation from Casinea was dangerous work.

Overview

Under orders from General Cuth, the Unconquered scouts attached to the Seventh Wave were sent to investigate stories of a Vallorn infestation in Casinea. Provided with good information by the Suns of Couros and others, they quickly located the encroachment in a burgeoning Spring regio and over the next few days they scouted the entire area to provide the general with a thorough description of the size of the threat.

Once it was clear that it was well within their ability to deal with, the general ordered the soldiers to circle the area and attack. Lines of heavily armoured cataphracts advanced through the dense foliage, chopping down anything they could reach. Hard work, dangerous work, but vital in order to prevent the vallorn from taking a foothold. Left for a decade or two, this infestation could have taken root and then the thing would have been much harder to shift.

Significance

At the end of the day, the destruction is complete. Imperial magicians sweep the area and confirm that there is not the sightest trace of the vallorn left there. They do find two strange pods, near the centre of the regio, which are boxed up and sent to Anvil for the Conclave to examine. Sadly the Wave takes over 90 casualties before the location is rendered safe, but most agree that it is a small price to ensure that the Vallorn remains confined to its dark forests.

Resolution

The strange pods were presented to the Imperial Conclave. While there have been some further problems with vallorn-related effects in Casinea, there appears to be no links to this incident.