At first, the entire crew took up the refrain as they fed every non-essential item they could find into Hellforge Mandukor’s roaring furnace. So long as the Hellforge burned, the Eisenek aboard the Brimstone-class star cruiser Terror could still hope to repair the ravaged vessel. Those hopes, alas, were in vain. As days turned to weeks, it became clear that the ship could not be salvaged. As the weeks turned to months and no help came, the crew’s ritualistic refrain died away. It would soon be replaced by screams of terror. With non-essential supplies exhausted and further repairs impossible, the crew initiated shutdown protocols, hoping their rations would last until a rescue vessel arrived.

Hellforge Mandukor had other ideas. When his fellow Eisenek attempted to shut down the forge, Mandukor knocked them aside and began devouring everything in sight—starting with the food. The crew mounted a brave defense, but their weapons had been among the first things to be fed to the Hellforge’s flames. As the Terror drifted silently through the void, Mandukor began to hunt. One by one he caught and consumed his comrades, pitiless in his grisly work. At last, with nothing left to burn, with the last guttering finger of forge—fire nearly extinguished, Mandukor switched off his photodetectors and prepared for the end.

But it was not the end.

With a sickening lurch, the deck of the Terror vanished, and Mandukor suddenly found himself in a blasted wasteland. Before him loomed a towering figure cloaked in leather made from two enormous bat wings, flanked by smaller winged humanoids of a more angelic mien. Sensing Mandukor’s malevolence, one of the slighter Kyrie took to the air in a flash of feathers. That same instant, Mandukor’s steel claw lashed out, catching the Kyrie by the foot and dragging the struggling creature into its nightmare maw.

In a flash, his furnace flamed anew.

Though Revna was somewhat less than charmed by their introduction, she recognized Mandukor’s power and potential. Drafted into her service, Hellforge Mandukor’s forge-fire now burns with infernal fury. Never again will the sacred furnace starve. Never again will the flames gutter and go out. Though he has rejoined the Eisenek war host, even they stay well clear of his vice-like grip. For they know full well that Mandukor no longer discriminates between friend and foe. Mandukor gazes upon Valhalla and sees only one thing: Fuel.

Hellforge Mandukor is available in the Rising Tide: Hellforge Mandukor Army Expansion!