Last week Warhammer Quest: Darkwater was revealed in all its glory. In this replayable dungeon crawler, you and your party of adventurers are tasked with taking on Gelgus Pust, one of Nurgle’s favoured sons, who is attempting to corrupt the Everspring in the Realm of Life.
No adventuring party worth their salt would ever take on a job without knowing the lay of the land, so we’ve prepared a guide to your quest. To start, we’re covering the history of the Jade Abbey and what you can expect when setting foot within its once-hallowed halls.
Everything begins with the Everspring, a font of crystal-clear water blessed by Alarielle the Everqueen. This sacred liquid is essentially supercharged Aqua Ghyranis – one swig and any mortal illness is cured, any wound healed without a scar, and with regular administrations one can achieve a sort of immortality. More than just providing a five-star spa day, the Everspring is a vital artery of life energy for Ghyran, even giving the Everspring Swathe its name.*
Naturally, such a powerful resource was closely guarded, and a stronghold known as the Jade Abbey was constructed around it. The monastic order that inhabited the Abbey trained a sect of warriors to prevent certain Chaos gods – mainly the jolly plague-spreading one – from seizing it.
People journeyed from all over Ghyran and beyond to visit the Jade Abbey, though few were admitted within its hallowed halls, and even fewer still were permitted to sip on the waters with any degree of regularity. The elites in control of the abbey had near-unfettered access to the Everspring, however, and so became functionally immortal by quaffing routinely from its energising waters.
Now when you establish a ruling body of immortal clergy, you’re bound to ruffle some feathers. Enter Gelgus the Pious, a priest with ambitions of becoming a high lector. Terrified of dying without making his mark on the world, Gelgus craved a position of import in the Jade Abbey, but the funny thing about immortals is that they don’t tend to retire.
Resentment took hold of Gelgus, and his ambition began to poison his soul. Despair and arrogance are a potent combination, and together they provided fertile ground for the influence of Nurgle to take root in Gelgus’ heart. It wasn’t long until he was pouring sickly honey into the ears of the warrior order of the Jade Abbey, turning them slowly against the rulers of the sect.
Gelgus the Pious eventually became Gelgus Pust, servant of the Grandfather, and he attempted to take over the Jade Abbey in a brutal betrayal. He failed, but his attack left the place a ruin that festered over the years, a supernatural rot slowly weakening its magical defences. After a long campaign that saw Pust contaminate ley lines and recruit a bloated entourage, he has taken hold of the Jade Abbey again.
Now a ruinous echo of its former glory, the Jade Abbey still thrums with powerful magic energy. Since Pust took up residence, the woods surrounding the ruins have been corrupted, with festering pustules and clouds of enormous flies buzzing over rivers of pus that Mire Kelpies cavort in. The Abbey’s upper levels were all but destroyed in Pust’s initial uprising centuries ago, its flooded passages and halls, riddled with traps and covered in mildew, standing testament to his siege.
Inverted waterfalls, part of a complex realmstone-powered system built to ferry precious liquid up from the Everspring, carry tainted water from the depths. Even Pust and his followers are yet to breach the lower levels of the abbey, and rumour has it that the Sanctum of Life so far remains unsullied, though the rot and ruin of Nurgle is all but inevitable. It’s now up to you and your band of heroes to battle through the Jade Abbey and prevent the corruption of the Everspring.
Luckily, you and your rag-tag band of heroes and mercenaries – your best mates and your family, most likely – are a skilled and dedicated bunch, or at least you will be once you’ve read the rulebook. We’ll have more information on the backstories of the noble heroes you can play, and the cast of cankerous villains you’ll be fighting, later.
While you’re waiting for Warhammer Quest: Darkwater to arrive for pre-order, you can also immerse yourself further in the brackish waters of the Jade Abbey through the Forge Your Destiny email journey. You’ll get asked questions via email, make choices about how to proceed as you make your first foray into the Jade Abbey, and see where the adventure takes you each week. You can join at any time, so be sure to sign up and follow along.
* Clearly cartographers aren’t hired for their inventiveness.
