I also am trying a different format when writing these. I am trying to not put any character dialog in the story as I could expand the story longer than anticipated.
Without Further adieu..
Chapter 1
The Ice Awakes
It's been a few years since
then. The day that it all went to hell. Least, that's how the story
will be told to generations. It was the day that the war began, the
Sundering and the fighting. Little did the hero of this story know,
that was the day that would change everything.
Alaric Drakenhoff, Young
soldier in the dark elf army under one of the lesser known generals
for the true king Malakeith, woke up as normal. The message had been
sent to the war camp, they march against their cousins for the right
of the throne to the true king. They were to be on the boat at 0800
hours, the sky tho, seemed ominous. He had never seen that shade of
red, almost the shade of blood. The worries quickly subsided as he
gathered his gear for the voyage to the battle. The trip was going
to be long, From the sea of chill through the sea of chaos into
ulthuain. 6 months by his count if the wind was on their side.. One
quick prayer to khaine and he was off.
The boat, about a football
stadium wide and deep and covered in head to toe in the banner of the
Naggarytheian united army (all the cities fighting as one), seemed
off from his vantage point. The rudders seemed to be a bit warped .
Maybe it was the morning fog that had begun to lift throwing off his
vision, or his feelings about the omen in the sky. He had that moment
of wanting to go AWOL. No one would notice him in the confusion as
his uniform looked the same as everyone else's. He could plant his
badge on someone so they would find it in the ensuing battle and
thinking he was deceased, but at that point it was too late. He was
pushed onto the boat and as the plank lifted up, he knew that
something was going to go bad on this trip.
It wasn't until a few hours
later that his fears were confirmed. As the boat went through a small
slit between an island only known to the locals as home to a fierce
black ice dragon and Karond Kar, the blood red skies seemed to roar
and a massive storm of lightning, energy, and what looked to be bits
of black streaks of who knows what. Then the assault horn was called.
They were boarded! From out of nowhere, it seems that, through the
lightning and the energy, demonic forces had come through. Waves of
red axe wielding demons unknown to Alaric at the time had obliterated
3/4ths of the army by the time anyone reached for their weapons.
Alaric, down in the hull of
the ship when the attack occurred making sure that his equipment was
properly stowed away for the long trip, heard the commotion coming
from the bow and stern of the ship. He started to don his armor when
the first one came down, it's red body lighting up the underdeck like
the fire of a torch. His chain mail half on, he quickly drew his
sword and slashed at the creature, getting a lucky shot off and
cutting its head off. He tried to quickly finish donning his armour
when the next 3 came. He knew that this was a losing fight if he
stayed down here. Only one true way out, and they could funnel him
and, from the sound of the fighting, he knew that there was more on
the way. Making the quick decision to jump out from the hull of the
artillery and swim to the closest land mass was his only option if he
wanted to live. He broke off a piece of the ship to use as a buoyancy
device for as long as possible, maybe a makeshift raft if he was
lucky. Threw off the chainmail he just put on, and took his sword,
and whatever else he could carry and threw the board, which managed
to be about the length of his entire body, and hoped for the best.
The water was cold, but he
was used to this temperature. He took one glance back to see the ship
finally succumbing to the ambush and seeing the captian, bloody and
missing half of his flesh, lighting it on fire as a last ditch effort
to stop these demonic creatures from getting anywhere further. It
seems his little craft had went unnoticed, or whatever the reason
these creatures did not pursue him. He then, using his sword as a
paddle, started to go towards the nearest land mass.
It was a few hours later of
paddling and drifting before he spotted the island. He was exhausted,
but had enough strength left to get the make shift raft close enough
to be carried in the rest of the way. The moment the craft touched
the beach, Alaric finally passed out.
It was several hours later
before he awoke. The moon had started rising in the sky and he could
see the surroundings. He didn't know where he was or how far away
from the main land he was and as his stomach growled he realized that
he should try and find food. He set out towards the west to what
looked to be a mountain thinking that he could get a better view of
his surroundings.
After cutting through the
forest for what seemed like an eternity, he finally found the base of
the mountain and found a very curious site. It was a tiny village
with some kind of weird altar in the center of town. It was then that
his eyes started to become like saucers.. he had landed on the island
of the black ice dragon, and knew that no one ever returned from
there alive. He slowly started to back up when it happened. A loud
thud was all that he heard before his world went black.
Several hours later, he
awoke, tied to the altar and stripped of his weapon. The town had
gathered, their clothes a mixture of leaves and rocks and what looked
to be dragon hide, their faces painted with dirt, their appearance
reeking of an individual who hasn't heard of the word soap and water.
Their language, a primitive form of his language, but still
understandable from what he could tell. From the sounds of it tho,
they were chanting to the person the altar resembled. He had one
chance to escape as his captors had not realized that he was
conscious again. Using some of the skills he had before he was
conscripted into the army, he quickly untied the bonds on his hands,
and in one fluid motion, stole one of his captors weapons and held
him hostage, the blade, although crude and unrefined, still sharp
enough to cut a mans head off.
He tried to communicate
with his captors, to no avail when this beautiful woman came out of
one of the tent. Awoken by the commotion going on. She didn't look
like the rest of them, and spoke Alaric s language perfectly. After a
couple minutes into the standoff, they came to an accord. Alaric
released his prisoner and then dropped the sword. He then slowly
started walking with his hands up towards the female as part of the
accord.
Stopping a few feet from
her, he asked her why she spoke so well and what her name was. Her
name was Sepherene, and she was from the mainland. She then went on
to tell that and an expedition group came here to map the island.
They stumbled upon this village and each of her team got sacrificed
one by one to the dragon in the mountain. She was only spared after
showing some of her mystical abilities. She did let it slip that
whoever could tame the dragon would have great power over the island,
and that there was more villages like this one. Alaric, his cunning
almost unmatched to the typical dark elf, made a proclamation, he
would tame this dragon. The villagers laughed and thinking that it
would be an easier sacrifice than all the previous ones, agreed. They
threw his sword that they had taken when they captured him and he sat
out towards the cave.
An hour later, he was at
the cave mouth, the moon setting slowly in the sky and the sun
starting to rise. He entered the cave slowly, his breath showing up
every time he breathed. He slowly navigated the cavern, using the
light from the moon as a make shift lantern to maintain his stealth.
As he turned the corner about halfway into the cavern, he almost
stumbled right onto of it. The mythical dragon. He knew that, from
his military training and talking with some of the knights who ride
animals similar to dragons, that every creature will only attack if
it feels threatened, and that dragons were more intelligent than the
average beast. He then sheathed his sword, but only to the point that
he could quick draw it for the strike if necessary and awoke the
beast.
The beast was grumpy, and
was just about ready to attack Alaric when Alaric spoke some words
that the knights used to tame their mounts. The dragon stopped,
looking curiously at Alaric as to how he knew that language and
phrase. Alaric, noticing this, started up a conversation with the
dragon. After 30 minutes and several chances for the dragon to eat
him whole, Alaric had finally calmed him down and, after offering
riches beyond his wildest dreams if he followed him, the dragon and
him became acquaintances.
As a show of faith, the
dragon let Alaric ride on his back around the island, showing him the
villages, and then, finally landing in the middle of the village he
was captured in. The villagers all bowed the moment that Alaric
stepped off the dragon. This feeling was good, although, he knew that
if he were to keep his promise to the dragon, that the island, known
by its nickname Zerstorend Eisdrachen, had to be united and trained
to be a force. He knew that it would take a while, and the dragon
knew.
A few decades later, after
years of training and fighting revolts against his claim of subduing
the dragon that they believed was a god, the island had advanced in
its ways. The weapons and training of each of the villagers were
refined. Word had spread to the mainland about his deed, and, people
were coming from all walks of the elves. Even opening up a slave
trading route with some passing pirates.
Alaric had also married
Sepherene and She had started up training any and all that showed
magical abilities. Alarics best friend, Anslem Fleischer had joined
him in training up the troops, and was given a generalship position
of one of his armies. Many people were flocking to the island on a
daily basis, but Alaric knew that it was almost time to appease the
dragon. He set up a makeshift government to keep the training and
commerce going and set off with his wife, and his best friend to
expand the name of Zerstorend Eisdrachen and claim more prestige for
the Druchii.
Chapter 2
The spoils of war
It had been a few years
since Alaric and crew sat out from the island, getting monthly
reports still on how it was going, and sending spoils back as he got
them. They had settled a city here in what was known to them as the
Badlands, although, he still had not known why it was called that. He
had set up a city and put in command of 3 different armies himself,
his best friend, and his wife, each focusing on their strengths and
trying to minimalise their weaknesses. He had sat up the city and a
mine near the coast as to have an easier path to send back supplies
and get reinforcements and send back slaves to work the mines back
home. He had deployed scouts all over.
There was one report that
made Alarics eyes burn with hatred. From two different scouting
parties, it was told to him via letter that he was surrounded by
demonic cities of their own! Although, the northern most group of
demons had a problem with little creatures known as the skaven and
had sent an appeasment to not be attacked from the rear by any of
alarics armies, which he accepted. This appeasement was a new sword.
It had blood inside the metal and was faster and lighter than most
swords he has ever wielded, causing him to swing it faster than
normal. It was the report of deamons to his west and their not so
well guarded castle that caught his eye. He didn't want to destroy
them just yet, but wanted to send a message.. He gathered up his army
and threw it straight into their capitol, while Anslem sent his group
up in a north western direction to try and capture land, leaving
Sepherene at home to protect the land that he had already conquered.
A few days travel put them
at the demons capitol before dawn, although, they seemed ready and
he had planned for the attack to begin at dawn. He had caught them
off guard and hoping to use that as an advantage, had sent scouts in
the night to deploy some mines towards the walls, hoping that they
would make it easier on him to assault the demonic force.
Dawn arose, and the attack
begun, the fire demons spouting flames took out most of the black
guard he had thrown in there with a special item, but left the
command group, and the battle standard bearer left. He then flew over
the walls and attacked the flame guys with his trusty dark pegasus
Todesengel, whom he had gotten over a decade earlier from a trade
with a really weird animal dealer.
The corsairs, driven to a
frenzy by his battle speech and through their own use of illicit
drugs, were set up to attack what looked to be some pink blobs of
horrific magic. The hydras were deployed to his left ready to attack
the walls and the people in it. The spearmen and one of his high
mages trained by his wife in the art of death magic, were deployed
between the hydras as to avoid the black guard and their magical
item. A lesser mage was camped inside a unit of his finest
crossbowmen.
The battle raged on for
half a day before the words were cried. Retreat, the deed was done!
Alaric had smiled, he knew that the battle was lost, but a greater
victory was gained. The high mage that he brought had killed one of
the leaders of the army and had used her powers to destroy that item
forever! At least, he thought she did. The remainder of the army and
the reinforcements were at a camp a few miles away from the castle.
He had almost planned it to the tee, the claiming of the castle an
added bonus. He wanted to show that he was not to be taken lightly
and that no one will walk over them, Not man, or warrior of chaos,
nor ogre, or deamon, or skaven, or anyone!
He regrouped at the camp
and waited, will the demons think that theirs blood in the water come
to try and finish him off, or will he be free to try and claim their
land without so much of a fight..
Meanwhile, Sepherene was
getting impatient, and the thoughts of using the coast to her
advantage was appealing. It would mean that Anslem would have to stay
and protect the lands, but he was ready for that. It was spring and
his menagerie of knights and chariots did not like the weather...
Chapter 3
War begins
It had been two weeks since
the siege, Alaric had become bored waiting. The demons did not fall
for the trap he had laid and his army was getting restless. The boats
that brought his reinforcements were also anxious to get back to the
makeshift home he had made on this land. As he sat inside the
commanders tent reading the scouting reports, one caught his eye. It
seemed that the demons that he had just destroyed one of their dispel
scrolls, making their control on the fickle winds of magic less and
his control over it more, had decided to pick a fight with a bunch of
horsemen and pesants from what seemed to be a foreign land. The name
Brettonia did not ring a bell to Alaric but if these demons were
going to be tied up with them for a while, that would protect one
side of his kingdom for a while.
He gave orders the next day
and everyone mounted up onto the ships. They were going to explore
the northern most region of the land, an area where the scouting
reports became a little fuzzy as only half of the letters were
reaching the kingdom. The trip was only going to take a few days as
the wind was on their side during this gentle time of spring. He
decided to train the new recruits during this time as to keep their
skills up In case of a fight when they stepped off the ship.
In the meantime, Sepherene
had started to devise a plan of her own. She was bored waiting around
and letting Alaric have all the fun. With Anslem and his cold ones
and chariots guarding the kingdom, she moved onto the coast. Claiming
it for her own, she decided to build her own personal Wizard's Tower
overlooking the gentle sea. This way, ships wouldn't have to worry
about the harshness of the lands during their seafaring voyages,
although she knew that the water would soon turn choppy, limiting
their journeys.
Alaric and his army stepped
off the ships three days later. The area seemed unusually cold.
Corpses littered the area. Alaric carefully took out his sword of
bloodshed and commanded his army to watch out for any sort of
surprise attack. One particular corpse caught his eye. It was tinier
in comparison to all the other skulls and bones and dead animals,
almost rat shaped. It looked as if it was more recently deceased. He
slowly walked over to the body, and, using his sword, he pushed a
piece of the skeleton over. It was skaven as far as he could tell,
but he was curious as to why so close to what was reportedly the
skaven's kingdom that this now rotting corpse was out here, and in
such a manner. Then he heard it, the chilling screams of what would
be the cause of all these bones. Barking orders as he looked into the
sky he saw not one, not two, but three of the dreaded beasts known to
him as Terrorgheists. He had been lured into a trap by the undead. He
quickly got the troops together and faced off against the ambushers.
The battle waged on for
what seemed like an eternity. In the end, Alaric, although badly
injured but not to the point of incapacitation, had been victorious.
With little loss on his side, he had defeated all three
terrorgheists, and had wiped out the ambushers for at least this
season. Claiming the land for his own, and mocking the skaven in the
process.
Two more weeks passed.
Alaric had halfway finished turning the land back to livable when he
heard an urgent message from one of his scouts. It seemed that the
skaven had surrounded his army on all sides. This not only could mean
trouble for alaric, but he sensed this as an advantage. He had
already captured several slaves to run his mines and the distraction
had worked. Through the dead of night, he moved his army and sailed
back towards his own kingdom, landing on what looked to be a mine run
by dreaded demons of khorne. Seeing this so close to his own land was
almost a godsend he thought. He ordered his ships to land to take
over the mine for his self!
In the meantime however,
Sepherene, not bound by the same order of kindness that Alaric had
when the demons gave him his sword as a treaty. Decided to wage a
little war herself. She landed right next to Alaric's army with an
army of her own sending out a call of challenge to the demons of the
land. She wanted expansion, she wanted more relics and trinkets. She
wanted it all. The demon lord accepted over the fields of a river
that was teaming to the brink as the season was ending.
The battle was a difficult
one. The river had claimed many lives and sacrifices were made to
protect her, but in the end, she was victorious. She had proven her
might was equal to her husbands. After the potential claiming of the
land for their own, they were going to celebrate along with Anslem,
who at this point was teething with anger as the happy couple were
having more fun than he was. Summer was coming and he was not going
to sit idly by and let them have all the fun in this conquest of this
new land.
Chapter 4
War of the Frozen Sun
Summer had started. Alaric,
Sepherene, and Anslem had just convened back at the castle
headquarters to discuss scouting reports and how to keep all this new
found land and slaves protected.
A lot had happened in the
time since Alaric and company had set foot on this land. The Ice
dragon had been appeased for a while, and boredom was starting to set
in. It had been a couple of months since the battle against the
deamons to the north for their mine, and Alaric was sure that the
skaven slaves he had captured after the battle to the north against
the undead would make excellent miners. After all, they realized
that living with the dark elves would be more beneficial to their
health than being food for the undead.
Anslem had reservations
about the sneaky and quite vile smelling rats. He knew that they were
planning something. After all, rumors were coming in that the skaven
to the north had figured out how to tunnel around the map, and were
starting to put a monopoly on the mining operations in this land. It
would only be a matter of time before these slaves that were captured
try to kill them in an effort to break free back to their homeland.
Sepherene, on the other
hand, had her own ideas. She had heard of one of the chaos leaders
being sacrificed in a pit near the edge of ogre lands. She had been
practicing khanite beliefs in secret while Alaric was gone, and
wanted this sacrificial pit for her own.
So the meeting was
adjourned. It was obvious that even Alaric couldn't control his wifes
desires, nor his friends reservations. He also wanted to check to see
how his slaves were adjusting to their new enviroment as cheap labor
forces. Anslem wanted to send a scouting party into their territory
deep in the land of the skaven, and sepherene wanted that sacrificial
pit.
All hell broke loose a week
later. Anslem came rushing back to the capital, his body wracked
with vile poison from an unknown assassination attempt. He didn't see
which army had done it, but he knew that when he had recovered that
he was going to send his army out and kill anyone who even looked at
him the wrong way til he found out what army had tried to assassinate
him and kill the person who ordered the assassination.
Alaric saw that the demons
wanted their mine back and decided to kill two birds with one stone,
kill his slaves who had started three revolts in the time between the
capture and when he went to visit, and make the fight against the
demons more manageable as they had two armies about to bear down on
him. He moved back towards his homeland, freely letting them take
back the mine, but not without leaving a trap of his own. He had
rigged the mine to collapse on both the skaven and the deamons.
Sepherene's excursion had a
more positive result. She had arrived at the sacrificial pit, and
seeing it clear of ogres claimed it for her own. She ordered some of
her servants to start taking down some of these giant cauldrons left
here by the ogres, although to them these were more like bowls that
they used to consume some of the chaos leader's esscence in order to
gain more power for themselves. After all, this leader was an all
powerful mage in the service of the chaos lord tzeentch.
It took a few weeks for her
excavation to finish. Anslem, in his quest to find out who had tried
to assassinate him, had stopped by to check on her as he had a
feeling the ogres wouldn't like them in their new claimed territory.
She gave one of these cauldrons to his warband, pushed by a few hag
attendants as he passed through towards the chaos warriors who had
come down to see if they could scrape any remnants of their fallen
general from the pit. He knew that if anyone knew who had tried to
assassinate him, these warriors would be a good start!
Sepherene had other plans
tho. After Anslem had left, she heard of a place that would make her
death magic more powerful. It was unfortunately deep in the heart of
the ogres! She decided to leave the sacrifical pit unguarded because
she had already accomplished what she wanted to do. That and the
thought of improving her mastery over death was much more appealing
than a silly blood soaked pit.. after all, that's what these
cauldrons of blood were. Unbeknownst to her, Alaric had already
ticked off the ogres by using one of his scouting parties to capture
their only mine.. Although, he was unable to use said mine because of
nasty goblin trappers that these ogres kept in service who had rigged
it for explosion on the sign of any non ogre or goblin invasion..
Alaric had his own problems
to deal with. It seems that the ogres were not happy with their mine
being destroyed, along with the brettonian's and empire expedition
nearing closer and closer to his capital. He had stayed behind to
protect what he had. It was a good thing too, the deamons from the
west had finally regrouped from their beating back when they first
arrived in this land and had decided to try and capture the only mine
the kingdom had!
He knew what this meant..
It was time for full out war, something he had been trying to avoid
all along using trickery, and maneuverability.. Nothing will be the
same for any of them ever again....
Chapter 5
Wretched and Divine
The war was progressing
with extreme results. Alaric's forces had successfully defeated the
demonic incursion into his lands. He had yet to hear back from
Sepherene, nor Anslem tho. In the back of his mind, he knew something
was wrong. None of his messages to either of them were getting
through, and some of the messages to his kingdom had also stopped
going through. Several of his ships had been bombarded and raided,
some even destroyed by yet unknown weaponry. It almost seemed as if
someone were deliberately causing his reinforcements to die on the
trip to the main land. Alaric was desperate. The battle with the
demons had started taking its toll on his psyche, and not to mention,
demons make pitiful slaves. As he made his way back towards the
southernmost point in the kingdom, he noticed some filthy humans had
stumbled upon his land in fear of the ogres and the deamons to the
west. Seeing as this a sign of fortune, he quickly enslaved them and
built a new mine to further supplement his funding thanks to all the
attacks. All things were going well from his perspective..
Meanwhile, Things went from
bad, to worse in the battle against the ogres to try and capture a
powerful landmark to help teach better control over the mastery of
death. The once focused and resolute group of Corsairs, Spearmen, and
Repeaters under the command of Sepherene seemed to abandon their post
after the weird talisman of the ogres knocked her unconsious and near
death.
She would have died if not
for the actions of some new recruits. These “Dark Riders” as they
like to call themselves were observing the battle for Alaric, making
sure that his love would not come to harm at the hands of those
filthy fat ogres. They had promised not to intervene in the battle
itself, but after seeing what looked like a Skaven assassin that had
burrowed up from the ground nearly decapitating Sepherene, they
quickly shot him down and using their speed, picked the unconscious
leader of the Temple of the Black arts, and made quick haste back to
the kingdom to warn Alaric that the rats were starting to make their
move. It was rather unfortunate tho, that the Cauldron that she took
into that battle had to be left behind, meaning another trip to the
sacrificial pit, that they luckily still owned after the ogres
decided to abandon it for their own gains.
Anslem had a more
interesting encounter of his own. Thinking that he was going into
battle against the Norse warriors of chaos and had planned tactics to
avoid their cannons from hell, he stumbled upon the root of the
problem of the ships being destroyed and supplies being sent to the
bottom of the sea. The high Elves had come to this land, and they
came with a purpose. It was them that were destroying the ships,
trying to claim the seas for their own. Filled with the eternal
hatred for his distant cousins, Anslem successfully beat the unnamed
high elf force, forcing them back towards what used to be the chaos
lands that they had taken over. He knew that he had to tell Alaric
what he had just faced, but knowing that his messenger birds were
being shot down by the demons, the ogres, and the empire and
brettonian forces that had started their own wars, he decided to
start heading back towards the kingdom to tell him, stopping along
the way to attempt to capture the last mine of the demons to the east
of the kingdom.. only to have it blow up the moment that his army was
in range of capturing it. It seemed that these demons were evolving,
either that or the passing ogre and brettonian forces had set it to
blow in their wake.
A few weeks went by after
all these events. Anslem had decided to try and stake claim to what
used to be the mine of the demons to the east. The dark riders had
managed to get Sepherene back to saftey, and warn Alaric of the
initial skaven incursion that was coming. Alaric had become furious
at how the results had gone and that the skaven had decided to target
his beloved with execution. He was going to make sure that the skaven
would pay for such atrocities. He had not yet heard of the High elf
landing and had ordered a new army of more loyal soldiers to protect
Sepherene, Included into the army were to be even more dark riders,
along with some new beasts that had been cooking for a while..
Harpies, sirens of the seas had finally come over and hatched.
It was on the final night
of the weeks, with summer finally coming to an end, and hopefully
with more cooler air bringing good fortune to those from the area of
the Sea of Chill that they attacked. The skaven had come burrowing up
from the ground near the capital city. Alaric quickly moved to meet
them head on. He planned to not only win, but to capture their
general, and Behead him and send the head back to the skaven as a
warning! It was not long after Alaric had left to go make work of the
skaven that the demons to the east decided to try and retake the
mine. Sepherene, having recovered from being knocked out, and hoping
that this new group of militants were better than her previous, took
it upon herself to go fight them. She too wanted to capture and
sacrifice the demon general, hoping that the fear of the dark elves
might might make people think twice from attacking them in their own
lands, Including the men of the empire that had decided to try and
sneak the capture of their Wizards tower/lighthouse. The will of man
tho, is easily bought with relics....
Chapter 6
The Dark Descent Into....
The plan was a success, but
at what cost. Alaric had been in a prolonged fight verses the skaven
for what seemed like an eternity before he finally sounded the horn
of retreat. The deed was done by that time, after fighting through
wave after wave of rats, abominations, and other weird skaven
machines, he had captured the skaven warlord, who was taken off by a
lone harpy that decided to flee instead of die like the beast it is.
Unfortunatly, as he was giving Todesengel the orders on where to go,
a lone magical skaven rock managed to hit him in the head through his
dragonhelm, knocking him unconscious. The armies battle standard,
being very heroic for a dark elf managed to shout the last orders
before making one final stand to hold back the skaven army giving the
rest of alaric's army the chance to flee with their prisoner before
being cut down by the dishonorable skaven machine known as the warp
lightning cannon.
The army had managed to
fall back towards their sacrificial pit with the prisoner. Alaric,
being carried there by his loyal dark pegasus, awoke a few hours
later after being attended to by the dark elf healers. It was then
that he heard of his battle standards sacrifice, and in a fit of rage
he grabbed the skaven warlord and started to cut him up, inch by
inch. It seemed that he was even smiling as his sword moved ever so
slowly seeming to skin the rat alive. This was a different Alaric
than most of his army had known. They had never seen this side of
him, how sadistic it seemed he was towards an obvious prisoner of
war. They feared that the blow to the head had somewhat changed the
leader of their clan, either that or the fury of war had finally
taken it's toll on the once stoic and honorable leader of the
Drakenhoffs.
The blades final stroke
finished off the skaven, his head bouncing into the pit, a sacrifice
for a sacrifice said Alaric, the almost Khananite fury having
subsided at this point. He moved over to the rats head, picked it up,
and then ordered one of his captured skaven slaves from a previous
battle to take it back to his race as a warning against ever coming
back into his lands, even through tunnelling.
It wasn't too long after
that, as Alaric had remained in the pit area restrengthening his
forces, and seeming to talk to himself every so often, that a
messenger from the empire arrived. They had captured one of the demon
generals and wanted to make use of the pit themselves. Having shown
nothing but honor to everyone else to this point, Alaric allowed them
the use of the pit on two conditions, First one was they wouldn't
take his lighthouse/Wizards tower in his lands, and two, that he
himself had to witness the sacrifice. The Empire agreed to these
terms and, as the demon general screamed in horror, a smile grew on
Alaric's face. It seems that war had changed him, and he liked the
slaughter.
In the meantime, Sepherene
was becoming rather bored with waiting for the initial demonic
invasion into one of their mines. The weather started becoming cool,
and she embraced the change, hoping that the cooler temperature was
to bring success to the Dark Elves. It was then that she felt a
strong magical disturbance in the air. As she looked up and towards
the direction of the sacrifical pit, unknowning that her love was
there, she noticed that there was a magical storm brewing around what
looked to be a small spec in the distance. It seems that this land
had its own secrets, and this one, a so called, flying fortress, had
finally appeared bringing a storm in its wake. Although she was
curious as to what power could cause this, she feared that if she got
to close to the tower, she would become consumed in it's mighty
magical chaos without first finding a way to protect herself from the
magical energy.
Autumn had arrived. Alaric
had remained at the pit, curious as to what had appeared next to the
location, and wondering if the sacrifice of both the demon and the
rat had caused this massive fortress to appear and bring a storm of
magic in it's wake. Sepherene, who had figured that the demons
decided to go elsewhere and Anslem, who had failed to capture the
land that he stopped in, had both met up back in their initial lands.
Anslem then told Sepherene about the incursion into this land by the
filthy cousins of theirs, the High Elves. Sepherene, knowing that she
needed to tell Alaric about them, tried to use her magic to send a
message, but the magical feedback of the tower was proving to be
difficult. She then sent a messenger towards him by land, using the
dark riders, who had proven to be fast even for elven standards. In
turn, She and Anslem were going to take their respected armies and
try and capture some more of the coast to give their ships a broader
landing platform as to avoid all the high elf attacks on their ships,
even sending all their corsairs out onto the ships in order to make
sure that these pirates could fend off anything the high elves could
throw at them.
The dark riders, having to
go around what looked to be a demon on demon incursion into their
lands on top of one of their mines, managed to relay the news to
Alaric a few days later. He smiled. If he were to become the ruler of
this land that it wouldn't feel right unless he managed to prove that
his race was superior to those high elves. As he sat there, trying to
figure out a plan of attack, as well as trying to figure out what
this giant fortress was that had appeared near his lands, he got word
that the demons to the east were about to attack. He promoted one of
his loyal female champions to the company battle standard, and
proceeded to prepare for their attack...
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