Of the many legends surrounding the Chaos Wastelands, one of the more enigmatic and disturbing is the one surrounding the Mirrored Hall.
Supposedly, the Hall is a building entirely made of a silver so polished that it looks just like a mirror, hence its name. The palace is both a beautiful and disturbing spectacle, as the architecture is told to be completely impossible in some parts.
According to the stories, the Hall is never in the same place twice, and those who enter it get trapped inside. Despite this, a huge number of adventurers tries their luck and venture the hall, never to be heard again.
There are some instances of individuals who mantain they escaped the clutch of the Hall. While most are mythomaniacs and shams, some others are somewhat more believable.
One of the most egregious cases is that of the Tilean Arnoldo de Breccia, the finder of the Golden Tear of Araby. A noted and successful archaeologist, Arnoldo organized a big expedition in search of the Hall, hiring many rogues to finally conquer the secrets of the mysterious building. The party kept sending detailed reports to the University of Pavona up until locating the Mirrored Hall, sometimes around summer 2444. According to the papers, the casualties up to this point had been minimal, but as soon has they entered the silvery palace they where cut out from the outside world. No word was ever heard from them again, the fate of the hundred people of varied races who composed the expedition unknown to the outside world.
In the winter of 2499, however, a single man appeared in Kislev, a hunchback covered with a ragged reddish cloak. This individual said to have important news regarding the de Breccia expedition, carrying the Golden Tear as an undeniable proof; an envoy of erudites from the University of Pavona and other institutes from the Old World went to the city, trying to find clues about the fate of the respected adventurer and the nature of the Hall. Much to their surprise, when they arrived and started interrogating the man, he revealed himself to be none other than Arnoldo.
Despite being supposedly about 110 years of age at the time of the meeting, and the fact that his head had been somehow turned itself upside down and bent in an unnatural pose, the few who knew him before the expedition are absolutely sure that the man they spoke with was Arnoldo, although a mildly insane and terrified one. With hoarse voice, Arnoldo told them of the horrors he had to endure once inside the hall: eldritch horrors slaughtering his men, cackling creatures smaller than an halfling tormenting them in their sleep, the everchanging layout of the rooms and their baffling architecture, which angles should not have been. He told them of how he died just to be born again, and how the inhabitants of the Hall toyed with him, and how he came to understand that they were looking to free an entity which they called "The Master Beyond the Mirror". He told them he met many men and beasts who had sworn allegiance to the Master, either willingly or after centuries of torment inside the Hall; beings so mutated, twisted and mad to be almost undistinguishable from their demonic allies.
Exhausted by his retelling, and disheartened by the incredulous faces of his colleagues, Arnoldo went to his rooms, promising to tell more the following day. That same night, the Mirrored Hall was briefly sighted amidst the fog by the watchmen on the Great Walls of Kislev, causing great turmoil and sparking superstitious rumors among the citizens. The following morning, as the fog lifted, it was gone, vanished like a mirage; the man that claimed to be de Breccia, and the treasure he brought along, where nowhere to be found, and the proprietor and guards of the tavern where he slept had seemingly no recollection of a crookbacked stranger. Whether the meeting had been an elaborate hoax, a collective allucination brought by the nearby chaotic energy or something else nobody knows.
With the recent appearance of teams devoted to Tzeentch, the Mirrored Hall has appeared around the Chaos Wastelands more often, and sometimes it has been sighted even in other parts of the Old World. Whenever the Hall is nearby, the local bloodbowl team is challenged by a group of Tzeentch followers known as the Coven.
This team seems to be somehow connected to the Hall, and is always followed by a horde of familiars, some of which enter the field alongside the players. One of their delegates has contacted the Cabal Vision central office, saying that the Coven will join their Regional League. What this new development means is unknown.
RIVALRIES
During the unlucky first season of the team, coach AA started out a list of teams which earned a grudge from the team. Upon the years, the list expanded, as old enemies went away and new ones surfaced. These include, but are not limited to:
The Crimson Skull , being Khornate worshippers, are traditional rivals of the Coven. While the first match was rather uneventful, the vile Blood God worshippers cowardly killed by foul emerging star Eltrith. The Coven has sworn to take revenge upon these fools, but the crazed maniacs have shown a conduct unbecoming even of the followers of the foul deity, escaping confrontation with the best Coven team to date in 2603.
Similarly, Seven Samples of Decay were considered another intra-regional rival team, seeing the animosity between the Changer of the Ways and the Lord of Plague. The teams faced each other two times in their history, and both times the Nurglites came on top thanks to incredible performances by Mosstail the Pestigor.
The Coven also entertains a friendlier rivalry of sort with the Forsaken of the Pantheon, as the two teams have met four times starting back in the Heart of Glory I tournament in 2601. The presence of a sizeable tzeentchian contingent in the renegades' field has helped the two minnows of the Chaos Wasteland region mantain a civil relationship, at least outside the pitch. The scrams, so far, have always seen the Coven come on top, with three ties and two wins.
The Tor Anroc Anglers are responsible of the untimely demise of the first Harbinger - and they did it with a cowardly foul, too. Getting their hand on a pointy eared wussy is a priority, even though it won't be easy, given the Sea Elf tendency to actually use armor.
Finally, the Knights of Carcassonne are the first rivals from another region, since their game in the Heart of Glory I tournament. The Coven was viciously mauled during that game, but the withdrawal of the Bretonnians from the league meant that payback couldn't be found on the field.
Eltrith has been named by many as "most improved player at the end of the season". Unfortunately, his promising career was cut short by the vile boot of a Khorne follower.
Starting off as a no-name, sacrificable familiar, Yibb-Tstll captured the heart of many fans across the league, acting as a nuisance in the opposing teams half of the pitch. Its bravado was cut short by vile Wood Elf sorcerers, but its legend lives on. All familiars strive to become like him.
Picon Expansion Proj...
[L] Tzeentch (CIBBL)
Palehawk, the Revenant