"Cyrdic!"

"You must live!"

The Ostlander ran ahead of the group, the others unable to leave the protective field of Dietrichia's enchantment save Skaldi, whose short legs did not allow him to move near the pace Cyrdic did. The Ostlander knew the smell of the barbarian, and his runic sword gave renewed energy and strength to his tired limbs at the prospect of killing a follower of the ruinous powers. But what's more, he felt something different. His ears heard a distinct whistling in the air, the Ostlander's body feeling the shifts of the Chaos winds about him.

And he smelled blood.

His sword howled into his mind, and the eyes of his wolfish pommel glowed. A rock suddenly exploded out of the cracked ground, but Cyrdic vaulted over it as if he had seen it from miles off. The next pillar to erupt from the ground, he split with a stroke of his sword, too engrossed in the hunt to notice the superhuman feat he had just performed. The winds grew stronger, and bit into the very rock as he ducked and dodged his way through the maze of rocks that threatened to disembowel him with every eruption.

He could swear he heard an insane laughter in the air, echoing across the walls of stone around him, and then one word was whispered into his very being.

Slaanesh

Cyrdic exploded out of the shifting landscape, the wind and destruction around him silenced so suddenly, it felt like a forgotten memory from long ago. He breathed in deeply, and smelled a myriad of scents he recognized. But only two mattered. The scent of Camilla, and the scent of corrupted magic. He had learned to use his sense of smell before his eyesight through a natural transfer of senses, one now stronger than the other. He gazed upwards to see a desert of white sand that he saw extended beyond the very fringes of the world. The mountains and ruins were gone, and in their place were two bodies not forty paces away. One of them was a huge Norscan that had been cut limb from limb, bleeding into the dirt, yet somehow cackling hoarsely.

The other was Camilla.

"No!" he cried, running to her as fast as his legs were able, his enhanced energy somehow radiating through his body as his limbs were still weakening from the emotional pull of his hopelessness. Cyrdic made it to the small patch they lay upon and he skidded into the sand to his knees. The dust billowed, his throat constricted as he reached down to gently lift Camilla up, cradling her head. The Tilean's eyes gazed listlessly forward wherever her head was turned. "Hey," he breathed, cupping her chin and turning her to look at him. "Camilla..."

"Hyou ckankt shav her," the Norscan croaked from behind them, hacking blood. "Shlaanesh conchsumes er."

Cyrdic turned to the Norscan like a whip, his eyes glowing silver and his teeth bared savagely, his face so brutally altered into abject fury that it caused the Norscan to pause before he dare speak next. The Ostlander turned back to Camilla, his visage calming. He clenched his jaw and patted Camilla's cheek. "Little Bird...Camilla please," he breathed, but there was nothing. His eyes flicked to the ornate, gleaming sword that lay next to her. The Glyphs along the fuller blazed brightly, and he suddenly realized what he must do.

Cyrdic lifted his runic sword before him, and tried to intone a litany. "By Ulric, Sigmar, and all enemies of Chaos... banish all evil from this place." The prayer might not have been necessary, but he would take no chances. The runes along his Ulrican blade burned so brightly, many would be concerned that they would scald upon the touch. But he lay it across Camilla's forehead, and Cyrdic closed his eyes, hoping beyond hopes the magic would expel the Chaos that was invading the body of his lover and companion.
@Penny

Camilla floated in darkness, above her strange stars wheeled on unknowable courses. She tried to groan but no sound emerged from her lips. All around her was the familiar elven ruin, although it as spectral and distorted. The tower, only a stump when she had seen it, speared towards the heavens. The other structures too were no longer ruins. The temple reared majestically, a tall figure in marble gazed sternly down from the columaded entryway. Unsteadily she rose to her feet. The sword she had taken from the temple was till in her hands, it was the only object that seemed to have any solidity, the long slightly curved blade sported runes she had not noticed before, elegant elven characters burning like pale moonlight on the blade.

Far to the north across the spectral mountains a great fire blazed heavenward. Somehow she knew that if she went that way she could cross the mountains, pass through the crystal forest that lay beyond and reach the vale of mirrors. Once there she would find the altar of Ashen-Sughai. It was clearly visible in her mind, a beautifully carved piece of purple veined obsidian, wrought into the ten thousand pleasures of Slaanesh, each scene blending into the next to allow the devotee to follow the path to exultation. She could take Gorn there, lay with him atop the altar and walk the tenfold path. She saw herself writhing atop the reaver as she experienced pleasure beyond that which any mortal could comprehend. She saw the blade in her hand plunging into Gorn’s chest at the moment of exaltation, the bright arterial gush coating her naked body. She could feel the mystical strength of Slaanesh coursing through her, raising her above all others. Black armor encased her body as the blood congealed, she would no longer have to fear age, she could remain young and beautiful forever. There were pleasures she could experience, she saw herself leading armies, saw herself standing upon a great seal as wings burst from her back and her skin changed, her form flowering into a being as immortal as the stars and as beautiful. All she needed to do was…

The blade tugged in her hand, gentle but insistent. She glanced at it as she might a sudden stinging insect, enraged to have her attention taken from the raptous vision of her future that as so clearly laid out before her. Gorn, his body spectral and translucent lay on the ground as she had left him maimed and broken, defeated in a duel that had pitched her skill against his and named her the greater. The blade seemed to throb with approval at the thought but still it tugged. A purplish light pulsed within Gorn’s forhead, somehow the coin he had placed there was clearer than anything save the blade the beautiful elven woman’s features glowed back at her in hateful perfection. The weapon in her hand twitched again and she glanced into the fountain beside the sticken reaver. To her surprise there was water inside of it, though she remembered it being cracked and dry. In the water shimmered a reflection.

“Cydric?” she thought/spoke though no sound existed within this place. It was beyond her comprehension how such a thing could be. Surely there was no way he could have followed her to this accursed place but there he stood, holding his sword close to her, lips moving silently. Resolve filled her instantly and she felt something dark and seductive coil away in anger. With sudden intuition she turned towards the statue beside the temple, the armored figure looking sternly down at her. In a smooth motion she raised the blade in salute and then spun, stabbing the point of the blade down at the coin that screamed in Gorn’s head.

“It dosen’t look like its vorking,” Ivan rumbled, his hands wringing against each other in uncharacteristic concern. There crippled reaver laughed raspingly, almost silent from the effort of it. One of the Kislivites let out a feral growl and took a step towards the bloodied Norscan, hefting an axe to deliver the death blow. Dietricha stepped between the two men, planting her hands stubbonly on her hips. The grizzled warrior snarled in anger.

“Get out of my way witch or ill…”

“Look everybody just calm down we can get her to a healer,” Yantz began his eyes locked on Cydrics. There was a sudden surge of energy and Yantz’ hand jerked the pistol from his belt of its own volition. The big weapon boomed and Gorn’s forhead exploded in a spray of blood and brain matter. With a sound like a cannonball hitting a bell something metallic flew skyward in a glittering arc of gore, pinging off the side of a building with a sound nearly as loud before they lost sight of it against the background of stars. Yantz stared at his smoking pistol with a look of astonished horror. Dietricha only nodded in self satisfaction.

Camilla convulsed on the ground, her eyes snapping open wide and staring. For a moment her body arched silently and then with a wracking gasp she sucked down a tortured breath of air.

“Cydric,” she croaked and then rolled onto her side and vomited.
@POOHEAD189

It was a shock to his senses, his mind whirring with the excess corruption of the Chaotic energies that flowed through Camilla's mind as it tried to ensnare her very soul. He couldn't see the visions that she saw, but he felt a brief glimpse of a dark presence, eternally, painfully beautiful in pose of ecstacy, a wide maw gaping. He saw towers and mountains and visions of himself slaughtering untold thousands of men, only for it all to be gone in an instant.

“Cydric,” she croaked and then rolled onto her side and vomited.

Cyrdic regained his sensibilities just before she awoke, and he dropped his sword onto the hard ground, the landscape having transmuted back into the dried earth of the wasteland once more. They were now in the mountain pass, surrounded by the Elven ruins that seemed on the very precipice of crumbling into the dirt. Beyond them, the landscape shifted in a mockery of an Araby mirage, and Cyrdic could not look for longer than a few moments.

Madness lay there.

Cyrdic wrapped his cloak around her, and scooped her up into his arms. Ivan have a smile that opened his boisterous mustache to reveal his teeth. "Zsank Ursun. Little Dove..."

"We have to go." Dietrichia warned. The men of the party looked around worriedly, as if searching for a lifeline that if they but grasped it, they would be free of this nightmare realm they found themselves in. Skaldi held his axe up defensively, eyeing the landscape with a scrutiny. "My magic is waning, and we have yet to truly face the wastes. We must flee."

Camilla's slim form nestled in his arms and her eyes now able to see him. She cupped his cheek and whispered "Ciao amore mio," and her smile was broad. Cyrdic smiled back. "You drive me insane," he said, and pressed his forehead to hers. The wind began to pick up, soon howling around them, and an unnatural iridescent dust billowed out of the north. It parted at the shimmering barrier of the witch. To his horror, Cyrdic realized it was concentrated warpstone. They needed to move.

"Vot," Ivan said, approaching. "Let me take little dove. Ve have to go and you zshould leed."

Cyrdic reluctantly handed Camilla over, the huge Kislevite holding her easily in one arm as his free hand held his sabre. Camilla wriggled to get more comfortable, claiming she could walk freely while struggling to even sit up. She demanded the elven sword, and though Cyrdic was wary it was a Chaos artifact, Dietrichia placed her finger in the air before the sword and drew a line of blazing energy that burned into the retina. "It is an uncorrupted blade." She said. "Yantz, give it to her."

Yantz mumbled something along the lines of 'she says its safe but wont touch it herself' and handed the wicked blade to Camilla. Picking up his own runic sword, Cyrdic led them southwards where they would likely freeze or starve to death if they did not become the lunch of mountain trolls. If he was not thanking all the Gods for Camilla's safe recovery, he would have begun to think they constantly played a cosmic joke on him.
@Penny

The elation she felt at seeing Cydric kept Camilla on her feet for nearly an hour. She talked incessantly in a liquid mixture of Tilean and Reikspeil, trying to convey all that had happened in the weeks they had been separated. They moved south as fast as they could, though it seemed the shimmering cloud grew closer by the minute. At Dietricha’s urging they drifted east, she glanced frequently at the stars, although given the clouds veiled the stars Camilla didn’t see how she could be using them to navigate.

“She isn’t looking at anything. Just makes it all up for theatrics,” Yantz volunteered unexpectedly as Camilla followed the red heads gaze skyward. Camilla gave the Imperial a stunned look but before she could respond her strength gave out. She fell towards the rocky ground and was saved from smashing into the ground by Ivan’s grip on the back of her neck.

“Woah,” Ivan grunted and set her on her feet with as little difficulty as one might lift a kitten. Camilla scrabbled weakly at the Kislivite’s grip.

“I can walk,” she protested weakly through her legs felt like sausage. After a minute she managed to get her feet under her again, though she would have fallen without aid. Cydric waved a hand for a halt.

“I’m not a porcelain doll,” she protested weakly. Ivan grunted and let go of her shirt. Camilla pitched to the rocky dirt in a heap, her fingers managing to grip the hilt of the sword weakly. Skaldi stomped forward and picked up Camilla with as little delicacy as one might show for a sack of grain, slinging the former courtesan over one broad shoulder. He turned to Cydric, about to say something when he paused and turned back to the rock. Ignorning Camilla’s weak blows to his back.

“There was a river here once,” the dwarf rumbled, scuffing at the dirt with his boot to reveal striations in the granite.

“Moved underground I’d say,” he glanced towards a shadowed rocky area off to the east and then back at the pursuing storm of warpstone.

“Would you put me down!” Camilla demanded tartly.

“Quiet now lass,” the Dwarf responded pleasantly, “I was just about to say there might be caves where it went underground. Id bet my beard on it.”
@POOHEAD189

"We're near out of food and water." Konrad said, after having taken a ginger sip from his water skin. He wiped his mouth and handed it to Olaf, who looked nearly as tired as Camilla. The man was very skilled, and strong as a bull. But he looked as if the small portion of the wastes they had been through had drained much of the fight out of him, and he had already looked as if he had seen near too many winters for another campaign.

"Unless the river is far underground, it could be tainted with warpstone." Skaldi warned. They had made good time despite Camilla's understandably weak pace, but they had still not made it to where the air was cold, and even then the taint of Chaos still flowed freely over the land. The Kislevites had intoned Ursuns name constantly, bewildered at their luck of not being eaten by any of the horrible denizens or warbands that could have come across them in this bleak journey. But Dietrichia had a satisfied look, as if she knew that powerful Gods watched over them as long as Cyrdic and Camilla were there. She insisted they would make it to Praag.

The others were not as optimistic as the witch.

"Can you find an entrance?" Cyrdic asked Skaldi without looking at the Dwarf, instead his gaze was trained backwards and to the east, vigilant for any horrors that might befall them. On the eastern horizon, a vast ruined city of stone and brass reached into the sky, impossibly large. The city dwarfed Altdorf and Middenheim in its size, and the architecture did not look familiar to Cyrdic's sensibilities at all. To the north, the sky shimmered and convulsed with energy. "A cave or some sort?"

"If there's a cavern, I'll find it manling." Skaldi declared, kicking at the dirt once more to reveal the grooves in the ruined earth. It was amazing to Cyrdic that water could have ever flowed here. He had heard stories that the wastes had progressed further and further southwards over the centuries. Cities of ancient Man, Elf, and Dwarf had been swallowed up by its inevitable approach. He hoped it would come no closer to the Empire.

The Dwarf led them south east, over ground that looked as if it would crumble at any moment. Vegetation that seemed to bleed human blood dotted the landscape, caking the ground and giving Cyrdic the feeling they walked over dried, living skin. It was chilling, and for a short while even Camilla did not mind being carried to avoid touching it.

Later that day, the air began to grow a slight chill, and the ground began to look somewhat more normal. Though Cyrdic knew they mustn't let their guard down. Even as far south as Norsca (Sigmar, what a phrase), chaos mutations ran rampant and daemons could be summoned easily. There was a reason the land to its east was called Troll Country. And they were not even there yet.

It was by Ulric's strength and Sigmar's mercy that they finally found a group of crags and a sloping of the landscape, giving it a shallow, mountainous look despite no peaks rising to reach the clouds. Skaldi led them over the ground, and further within, his eyes meticulous and trained to seek any imperfection in the rock.

It seemed his intense focus on the trail had distracted his other senses, however. It wasn't Skaldi that forewarned them of the dangers ahead, but Dietrichia. She threw her hands up and hissed. "Wait!" as loud as she dared, causing the others to pause. Yantz seemed to grow a cold sweat, looking at her curiously. Cyrdic didn't know what was transpiring, until he breathed in through his nose and tasted a faint ozone in the air. A scent that caused his entire form to shudder, and he felt the hairs on his neck raise, as if electrically charged.

"Vat is it?" Ivan whispered, the group now lowered and hiding between the boulders of the uneven landscape.

Ivan was answered by a crack. The noise was deeper and reverberated unlike a blackpowder weapon. Another rumble followed, and a third. Cyrdic hugged the back of the boulder he hid behind, and he could see Camilla and Ivan across a short expanse away from him. He saw his love's eyes widen in horror at whatever being that existed and defied reality behind him. Clenching his teeth, Cyrdic breathed in through his nostrils and slowly inched closer to the edge of his cover, and second by terrifying second, he moved to give himself the slightest peak of what horror lay beyond.

It was at that moment, he felt true fear. He beheld something he never thought he would see in his mortal life. An immortal beast beyond time, tainted by a dark pact with Chaos and wielding a crackling hammer of lightning.

It was a Dragon Ogre.
@Penny

Camilla let out a shriek of terror a moment before Skaldi unceremoniously pitched her aside. The Tiean screeched and bounced over the rocky ground, instinctively curling herself into a ball to avoid the worst of the fall. Dietricha looked up at the thing in astonished puzzlement a moment before the thing hurled a bolt of greenish lightning from its arcane hammer. A greatsword standing in front of the wizard opened his mouth to scream but any sound was lost in a thunderclap that sprayed everyone with steaming gobbets of flesh. The blast picked up the redhead and hurled her twenty feet backwards into a granite boulder.

“No!” Yantz screamed, eyes wild with horror at the thing. The big horsepistol he carried crashed out and if the bullet flew true the gargantuan thing showed no sign as it stomped forward like a massive bounding hound, one of its feet coming down on another greatsword with a bone shattering crunch. Arrows ficked up at it as the kislivites fell back, shooting their powerful recurve bows as they did so. Camilla saw several arrows bounce harmlessly from the things hide. The elven blade lay on the rock five feet away from her. Without conscious effort she began to crawl towards it, dragging her battered body hand over hand towards the weapon.

“Run!” one of the soldiers yelled, his voice high and tinny in the aftermath of the thunderclap and he turned to flee, dropping is sword and vaulting away as fast as his legs could carry him. Camilla felt a flash of envy, and wished her own exhausted body would work so effectively. The ogre swung its weapon again, this time aiming at Cydric. Camilla felt her heart leap into her mouth but the Ostlander dived sideways and rolled, coming up on his feet, the rock beneath where he stood fractured and smoking.

“FUCK!” Yantz yelled and made a running leap towards the thing. His eyes were so wide they were completely rimmed with white, bastard sword gripped in both hands as he swung it down with all his might. The weapon bit into the things arm and hung. The Dragon Ogre snarled in world ending rage and flicked its arm as though ridding itself of a flea. Yantz lost his grip and flew through the air in a high and certainly terminal arc. Silvery light plucked him screaming from the air and set him down, none to gently amid the splattered remains of the first greatsword.

“Mine!” Dietricha snarled, standing atop a horse sized boulder, blood running from her nose but otherwise intact. The ogre roared a challenge but the air filled with a weird sizzle, like fat dropping into a cookfire the size of the whole world. Eye searing lighting leaped from the deranged woman, bright enough that even though she closed her eyes Camilla saw dazzling purple after images on her retinas. The bolt slammed into the creature pitching it back six feet and filling the air with a stench of burning hair. Incredibly the beast wasn’t dead, though a chunk the size of a dinner plate had been blown from its scaly hide. Camilla’s fingers closed around the hilt of the sword just as the thing flung its own lightning at the sorceress. Dietricha leaped away as the boulder she stood on was blasted to flying gravel by the ravening energy.

Camilla clutched uselessly at her sword, unable to stand or even lift the weapon as the battle unfolded. One of Ivan’s Kislivites was down, blood leaking from his tunic and the stump of one arm. The snarling horseman fitted another arrow to his bowstring, intent on vengeance. Yantz’ pistol cracked again though from her vantage point Camilla couldn’t see that it did any good. Screaming in frustration he threw the weapon at the ogre, bouncing the heavy stock of the things head and then pulled a knife. Camilla shook her head in stunned wonderment, she needed to stand, to help Cydric but her muscles just spasmed uselessly and clutched tighter to the elven weapon.

@POOHEAD189

Skaldi recovered himself, having been thrown aside by one of the concussive force of one of the Dragon Ogre's lightning blows. Any man of the empire or Kislevite horseman would have been broken, but the Dawi were made of stubborn stuff. He cursed in Khazalid, and set his jaw firmly, eyes blazing. The Dragon Ogre itself was preoccupied. Distracted was a better term, the bolt that had shorn off a bit of its skin causing it to glare balefully at the witch.

Skaldi was of one of the Elder races, learned in old lore. What was history and legend to them, was myth to the men of the group. Dragon Ogres were known only by the darkest stories of Chaos. Cyrdic was no scholar, but he had heard many of the legends. If what he knew about Dragon Ogres was true, then this beast they faced was likely older than civilization itself, and its lifespan would likely outlast the world.

Konrad had been obliterated, and Luka had been maimed. Ivan stayed by his comrade as he lay bleeding to death on the ground. Dietrichia began to incant once more, her eyes full of wild fear. Cyrdic had just thrown himself out of the way of a blow that shattered stone, catching himself on a boulder. He searched for Camilla, and saw her on the ground behind one of the larger rocks, clutching her sword. He saw she was alive, and that was enough. Ivan too. His eyes fell to Dietrichia, and he saw her glow with power. His eyes must have been playing tricks upon him, for he saw the very air twinkling around the sorceress before a wind that tore at even the rocks ripped across the landscape, contained within the area of the Dragon Ogre.

The creature seemed nearly unaffected, its body growing rigid and its clawed feet digging into rock as it roared its own spell, the language archaic and unintelligible, but the force of the chaos within it began to tug at Cyrdic's sanity. Suddenly the hurricane winds were shattered, and Dietrichia was thrown back into the crags like a tossed doll. Yantz was now on the ground, curled into the fetal position as his eyes bled from being within too close proximity to the chaos spell woven by the beast. He looked alive, though. Cyrdic hoped the sorceress was.

He gripped his runic sword, his teeth bared as he gathered his strength and leaped at the Dragon Ogre, his sword turned into an overhand grip. His runic sword plunged into the creature's thigh, digging deeply. With a brutal roar of pain, its gaze fell on Cyrdic with hatred. The very gargantuan, human head opened its gaping maw to reveal teeth like a rabid wolf's, and reared its head back as if to bite Cyrdic, hefting its hammer. The Ostlander tore his sword out of the beast to defend himself, certain he couldn't block a hammer blow directly.

"No!" Camilla screeched from the side, simultaneously a cry in Khazalid announced Skaldi from behind. His bearded axe chopping into the otherside of the Dragon Ogre, cutting into its midsection below its legs. Cyrdic rolled, the hammer blow now clumsier but still lethal. It missed Cyrdic, but the weight of the blow sent him spinning into the gravel of the landscape heavily, unable to tell up from down.

All he knew was that if they couldn't think of something, they would all die here.

"Ve maust flee!" Ivan called out, dimly heard over the roars and crack of stone. He looked about ready to charge in a second time if they were not able to run, or more likely to give the others time to. Cyrdic would not let the big man do that for him, though he couldn't argue with the man's fears.
@Penny

Camilla slowly pushed herself to her feet, the weakness that had stolen over her since Gorn had mouthed the unholy name as not completely gone but it was abating. Now all she had to contend with was days of arctic travel with nearly no food, nearly no sleep and the after effects of the certainty that she was going to be sacrificed or worse. She supposed she had been in worse situations, though none sprung to mind. If Cydric’s Ulrician blade could only sting it there was next to no chance she could do any more than die messily. The thing reared back and smashed its front legs down, narrowly avoiding pulping one of the remaining greatswords. Camilla ducked her head to avoid the spray of gravel. The ground shook with another blow and she saw a trickle of dirt side into a finger thick crack in the stoney earth. When she looked up Dietricha was standing in front of her. The mage was bleeding from a dozen small cuts, rock spray like that Camilla had just avoided, and the whole left side of her body was an angry red that was darkening towards purple before her eyes. The woman’s hair stood almost on end her curly red locks shot through with blonde giving her a crazed harlequin look which was at odds with her sombre serious expression.

The dragon ogre bellowed and lashed out with its weapon shattering Ivan’s remaining companion to a spray of gore that spattered across a nearby boulder. Dietricha just looked expectantly at Camilla. The experience made her skin crawl even as her spine tried to tear itself out and bolt for Pavona.

“Do something damn you!” Camilla screamed, looking over the woman's shoulder to where Cydric as fighting for his life. The woman’s wizardry didn't seem to have helped much thus far but it was better than nothing. Dietricha’s eyes cut towards the crack in the ground and then back to Camilla. She glanced down at the crack in askance but the wizard still did not speak. Camilla ground her teeth in frustration.

“Yes there is a crack in the ground what does it matter!” she snarled. It as hardly wide enough to fit a sword blade through, much less offer any useful opportunity to escape. Dietricha immediately brightened.

“There is a crack in the ground?! Goodness I would never have noticed!” The wizard exclaimed in apparent shock. Camilla wondered what Morr would say if her final act in this life was to stab the infuriating woman. A sudden certainty stole of the Tilean that could have been nothing but magic.

“Cydric! Everyone to me!” she shouted, feeling a sudden and completely unjustified surge of hope.

“Bring Yantz!” Dietrica snapped and began to chant, her eyes sparkled queerly, like they were filled with tiny stars. To their credit no one hesitated. Ivan leaped over the body of his dead scout and dashed towards her. Cydric… paired was to strong a word, but deflected a blow of the things hammer, hoped back and delivered a punishing overhand cut that raised a shower of sparks and a howl of pain from the creature and then darted towards her. Skaldi obeyed the wizards instruction to bring Yantz by the simple expedient of grabbing the prostate Rieklander by the leg and hauling him bodily. He would be lucky not to have a dislocated leg at the pace the squat dwarf was moving. The all closed into a suicidally tight knot and the ogre roared in victory and raised its hammer to strike. Dietricha’s chanting grew more intense and Camilla had the sudden impression of vast currents whirling above them. With a final shouted Dietricha slapped her hands together, the slap of flesh on flesh somehow louder than the ravening thunder heads. Lightning blasted from the Dragon Ogres hammer, somehow disappointing compared to the sorceresses clap.

Camilla wasn’t sure what she expected to happen but the very earth tearing itself apart wasn’t what she imagined. A vast fissure opened beneath them and the plunged downwards with a stomach flipping lurch. The wound in the rock was perhaps thirty feet long and five feet wide. Camilla and her companions hit rock with a clatter of equipment and armor. The Dragon Ogre appeared above them, perched on the edge of the crevasse but the earth lurched again, rocks screaming as the fissure closed as suddenly as it had opened. Darkness encircled them and dirt rained down on them from above. Camilla’s dainty sneeze sounded in the dark, over the groans of battered and wounded men.

“Where are we?” someone groaned, though through her ringing ears Camilla tell who the speaker was. Above them came several shuddering booms, as the Dragon Ogre stamped in frustration on the now solid rock above them. Another shower of dirt and gravel trickled down atop the beleaguered group.

“Its an underground river,” Camilla noted looking up and down the long cavern that they found themselves in. Sand coated the bottom and it was dry as death, the water must have dried up millenia ago, smooth rock walls were marred only where the occasional nodule of mineral had been strong enough to resist the insistent flows.

“How can zou tall?” Ivan rumbled, as he pushed himself up off his back with two muscular arms.

“Blacker dan za heart of a Daemon,” the Kislivite complained. Camilla opened her mouth to point out that there was plenty of light and she could see easily but closed it before speaking. There were no visible sources of light. It should be pitch black. Yet she could see as though by a particularly strong moon.

“The sand,” she said instead, “It gathers on the bottom of rivers.”

“Aye the wee girl is right,” Skaldi boomed. Dwarves could see far better in the dark than humans and he was back in a familiar element. A light flashed and a moment later Skaldi was carrying a battered oil lamp, the glass panels had been shattered by the fall but it still functioned. Camilla saw Dietricha kneeling over Yantz whispering and gesturing. The Imperial moaned and sat up, his eyes were bloodshot but obviously worked. He blinked owlishly looking vaguely disappointed. Camilla knelt beside Cydric, checking him over for wounds.

“Are you ok?” She asked in a worried tone.
@POOHEAD189

Cyrdic lay motionless for a few moments, having taken the worst of the fall when the group had leaped through the crack within the surface above. But he was stubborn and made of sterner stuff than most. He opened his eyes slowly, and gave a groan as he propped himself up on his elbows. The cavern was dark, but he'd found his eyesight had gathered light far easier than it used to, and he guessed it was because of his sword. But still, he would have had no visibility until Skaldi lit the oil lamp.

Camilla's beautiful face filled his vision, and despite the tumble he found he didn't mind at all. "I'm fine," he said, and reached forward to cup her cheek. He sat up, and used his other hand to do the same, pulling her forward and resting his forehead against hers, giving a grin and seeing she shared it with him. "Let's get the hell back to civilization, yeah?" He breathed, and kissed her thoroughly, tasting dust but not caring in the least. "We need a vacation."

They got to their feet, and the Ostland mercenary wiped some debris out of his hair and ruined coat. It did little good, because the Dragon Ogre above still was not bored with trying to make a hole to follow them, causing small rocks and dust to continue raining down on them. "Skaldi. Can you find a way for us?" He asked, blunt and to the point as always. The Dwarf nodded. He'd heard Dwarfs had uncanny abilities of direction underground, but he wanted to make certain.

"Ye bet yer ass, manling. Let's get going."

The Dwarf started straight away into the cavern system, which Cyrdic believed had to be a good thing if he moved without hesitation. Dietrichia was less sure of herself, or she seemed as such. She stayed quiet, gazing inwardly and fretting over her hair far more than one should when she wasn't. She glanced Cyrdic's way once or twice, but mostly simply looked at the ground. The ground often times bucked, rising and falling like jagged waves in the rock. Yantz stayed beside his mistress, just as Konrad the Greatsword stuck by his previous commanding officer, Cyrdic.

"I'll be reprimanded." He said to himself as they moved, finally having time to think now that they were not actively being attacked from denizens of Chaos. "If I am lucky, that is. The Count doesn't look on desertion mildly." Ivan spoke Kislevite to Boris in hushed tones, though he stuck close to Camilla, and to a lesser degree Cyrdic. The Ostlander wasn't good at comforting people, but without looking back, he spoke up.

"You're a good man Konrad." He said. "We could always use another sword."

"Sell my sword?" Konrad asked, a tad incredulous. He was going to ask further questions until Skaldi held up a hand and shushed the party. Cyrdic nearly bumped into Ivan's broad back, the Kislevite so huge he probably would not have budged from Cyrdic's considerable weight in muscle. Dietrichia hissed, her leg scraping over a stalagmite and she cursed. Yantz made a quip that only Cyrdic's ears picked up, about how she couldn't see that one coming. Skaldi ignored the group, and placed his ear to the tunnel.

"...running water," he breathed.
@Penny

They edged forward slowly, reluctant to move too quickly in the stygian darkness. After the horrors they had seen above ground they all feared to imagine what might be lurking in the darkness. The further they went however, the more normal things seemed. More normal for trapped beneath the earth on the fringes of the Chaos waste values of normal at any rate. The smooth rocky tunnel was alien to all but Skaldi but no monstrositis leaped forth to tear them apart. Even the pounding of the Dragon Ogre passed away qickly. Camilla kept close to Cydric, squeezing his hand. The contact semed to infuse her with strength, as well as giving her the chance to pretend that she couldn’t see as well as it were daylight. The improved vision scared her and she began to feel uneasy, fearing perhaps that mutation had set into her despite Dietricha’s lack of reaction when she looked her over.

The wizard strode forward confidently despite repeatedly bumping into half seen stalagtites. Yantz, pragmatic if not heroric, followed behind her, easily avoiding the pitfalls that befell his apparent employer. The Reiklander was loading a pistol as he walked, his movements expert and all the more impressive for being in near total darkness. He seemed to be mumbling something to himself, perhaps a prayer. She still wasn’t quite sure who they were or where they had come from but asking now, even in a whisper would be both obvious and extremely impolite. Mentally she framed her own prayer to Ranald.

“There it is manlings,” Skadi declared as they rounded a particularly jagged bend. The tunnel before them was five times the height of a man and easily as wide. Water rushed down a gentle incline in a torrent which whipped itself white wherever the drop got particularly steep. The running water caught the glint of the lantern and reflected and refracted it into a dazzling light show. Dietricha leaned close to the water and sniffed at it.

“There is no taint,” she declared.

“Aye the rock protects,” Skaldi agreed, in what sounded like a Dwarven saying. Camilla remembered from previous conversations with the Dwarf that many Dwarven holds were spared the corrupting winds of chaos due to their subterranean locations.

“So we follow this and see if we can find a way out?” Camilla asked, pointing down the running stream.

“Aye maybe,” Skaldi said, “But it will lead us back west towards the see, “If we are making for Kislev we might be better to climb. Camilla looked up the gentle cascade, trying to imagine spending hours or days climbing against the water. What she really wanted to do was stop and rest, but the memory of the Dragon Ogre’s pounding was too recent to make that thought a comfortable one.

"Is this like the underway?" Cyrdic asked. Skaldi looked at him as if he were the biggest fool the Dwarf had ever seen. "Are ye daft, lad? The Ungdrin Ankor is not a..." he sighed. "If ye were ever in it, you would know."

They headed up the incline, against the small current as it were. Cyrdic's strong hand held Camilla's comfortingly, his offhand holding his runic sword. Despite the normalcy of the rock, there could easily be Trolls or Goblins in the depths, along with ratmen or any other foul creatures unknown to man. He recalled vividly his and Camilla's first danger together in the middle mountains. He wondered to himself what had possessed him to fly into the middle of the Skaven nest to save the acrobatic Camilla from being sacrificed. Maybe he had a thing for her even then.

Skaldi halted up front, sniffing the air much like Cyrdic often did. Though the Ostlander tried to hide the act. He wasn't about to be burned at the stake for being influenced by Ulric from the sword he carried. The Dwarf grinned through his thick beard, and turned around. "Move quietly. There's an opening ahead." He whispered, and then advanced as silent as if he was walking on soft grass. It only took a few minutes before the lantern was no longer needed, and light poured in from above. Unfortunately, the opening was as far above them as the wide tunnel they had just traversed through.

"I say we climb it." The rugged leader said, placing a hand over his eyes to shield from the light as he gazed toward the sky.

"Climb it!?" Dietrichia scoffed, looking very unimperious at the moment, as if the very thought was damnable. The Greatsword Konrad shook his head, nearly as superstitious and annoyed by the sorceress as the Kislevites. He was a Nordlander, after all. The only magic they saw was often the corrupted sorcery of Chaos.

"I'll help you up, my lady." Yantz reminded her. He opened his arms a bit as if to present himself. She still looked skeptical, but the rest of the party ignored her after her small outburst.

"Ah, Ceedrick," Ivan said, walking forward and wrapping his big arm around the mercenary's neck, jovial and boisterous as ever. Cyrdic laughed but kept a strong hand on Ivan's arm incase the Kislevite got too excited and squeezed a bit too much. "Af' you been to a propur Kislevite tavern? I vil show you and little dove the viskey that iz so famous of my land. We vil drink together, da?"

Cyrdic wriggled his mouth out of the massive forearm, grinning despite the friendly struggle. "Yeah Ivan," he coughed. "First we got to make it there, though."

"I'm going first," Skaldi said, and without any delay he grabbed the first rock, hauling his considerable bulk and climbing up as if he were walking. The entire party watched, dumbfounded as Skaldi ascended up as if he were an ape from the Southland jungles. Despite his squat form, his fingers were strong and dextrous and he seemed to have a sixth sense on where the best places to grab were within the rockface.

Cyrdic let go of Camilla's hand and sheathed his sword, looking back to her. "See you at the top," he breathed, and began climbing up. He knew Camilla would have no problem. She was far more acrobatic and flexible than he. Cyrdic only paused once or twice during the ascent, making sure to move slow and positioning his body so his pack would be what he landed on if he were to fall. Konrad and Boris climbed well enough, though Konrad had some difficulties. Cyrdic needed to help him once the mercenary was up. Dietrichia stayed at the bottom, and they had to toss a rope down to tie her to after they had all climbed up.

On the surface, it was breathtakingly, horrifyingly beautiful.

Snowcapped peaks filled their vision to west, though curiously, they tops of the peaks were only marginally higher than the companions were. They found themselves on an endless plateau, covered in coarse grass that swayed from the cold wind that billowed from the north, lone mountains standing vigil behind them, back from where they had come. Ivan cursed in his native tongue, and Skaldi's nostrils flared. It seemed they weren't out of trouble yet.

"What?" Cyrdic asked as he helped pull Dietrichia up to the top one tug at a time. He knew there could still be any manner of monster this far north, but surely they were not cursing the obvious.

"Chaos horsemen live here," Skaldi informed him. "Steppe riders. Distant kin of the Kislev manlings." Ivan grunted and Boris scowled, unwilling to confirm the suspicion, but unable to deny it.

"How do you know this?" Konrad asked, and Yantz seemed to wish for the Dwarf to be discredited, even if it meant they were lost. Skaldi glanced Konrad's way. "Because the mountains over there I recognize. They border the Zorn Uzkul. We must make for the Highpass and hope we are unnoticed from both the eastern horseman and the western threat. Thank Grungni we only need sneak by the fortress of Uzkulak."

"Zorn Uzkul?" Cyrdic asked.

Skaldi seemed to hesitate, as if the very existence of what he was about to say vexed him to no end. "Land of the Chaos Dwarfs. My dark kin."
@Penny

Camilla looked around in wide eyed awe at the landscape before them. From the warm plains of Tilea it was difficult to imagine that a place like this could even exist. Wavy grass seemed to extend off to the east in a vast sea that stretched to the horizon, in the west enormous peaks scraped the sky. She pulled her cloak around herself, suddenly feeling very small and very cold. Wind rippled constantly stirring the grass to dance in strangely hypnotic patterns. Her knowledge of geography this far north was rudimentary, most Imperial maps that even showed these regions were at best educated guesses, and at worst fanciful ones. Here be Monsters was the standard marking, although in Camilla’s experience monsters were a little too ubiquitous to use as landmarks.

“Maybe we should spend the night in the crevasse,” she suggested tentatively, though she didn’t have alot of enthusiasm for the notion of climbing down the vast chasm that ran across the land like a scar, much less climbing up again in the morning. Skaldi and Ivan both shook their heads.

“Za Linger Ve are Owut heree,” he said words seeming even more deeply accented than usual, “Za warse our Chinces.” Skaldi nodded his emphatic agreement as he ran his thumb over the edge of his axeblade. He was whispering to himself in Khazlid, repeated the same syllables over and over as though remembering some ancient grudge. Camilla shrugged unwilling to contest the point but viewing the sinking sun with concern. The long climb had dried her out but the bite of early evening promised a brutal night. Once again she promised herself that if she got out of this she would find some work in Araby or Ind or any cursed place that didn’t threaten immediate death by hypothermia. Dietricha remained silent, peering at the heavens in confusion. Even Yantz, normally to be depended upon for a wise crack, remained silent as though oppressed by the sheer scale of the sky.

“Well at least path finding wont be a problem,” Konrad said, sounding cheerful if a little forced. Camilla smiled at the greatsword causing him to suck in his chest and blush slightly.

“Right, head for the giant mountain,” she agreed, her hand clenching and unclenching around the hilt of her weapon.

The walked for hours in relative silence. Speech seemed a risk that no one wanted to take. The Empire was a land of forests where sight lines were bounded by trees or city walls. Tilea had its hills and manicured fields, and Skaldi, raised below ground had never seen anything like this place. Ivan, who might have been expected to deal with the vista better than the southerners, grew sullen. Camilla privately suspected that it might have been different had the Boyar been on horseback. The landscape itself was less uniform than it appeared, every now and then a shallow stream, only a few inches deep and with a pebble bottom split the landscape. Dietricha pronounced each fresh stream as clean of taint, whether anyone showed any inclination to drink. Once they saw a small hill off in the distance. Atop it rose a great standing stone carved with runes. Trees, the first they had seen, clung to the mound like skeletons, man sized objects hung suspended from ropes and ravens circled. The gave it as wide a berth as they could.

The sun fell quickly and the temperature plummeted. Camilla was hungry but they had no food to speak of and had seen no game bigger than a field mouse. The walked on into the night, illuminated by the gibbous moon and the strange auroral glow across the northern horizon. Breath steamed from their lips and each breath as a sharp discomfort to all save Ivan and possibly Skaldi. The mountain crept closer and the land began to gently rise.

They were about to call a halt when Camilla saw a slight flicker of movement on the horizon, she glanced around to see if any of her companions had caught it. No one appeared to have noticed. Cydric paused, looking down at her as she stiffened. She peered northawards against the gloomy half dark.

“Riders,” she breathed, her voice seeming to break a spell that had lain over the group through the endless afternoon. Skaldi peered in the direction of her out stretched finger.

“Well I’ll be buggered,” he muttered looking at Camilla with a new found respect, “You’ve the eyes of a dwarf, bless me if you ain’t”

“Looks like a few score of em, and riding hard.”

“Lay down,” Ivan suggested, suiting his actions to his words. They all crotched down in the waist high grass, watching the dark tide of horsemen boil up over a distant hilll, seemingly headed straight for them.

“We need better cover,” Konrad murmured, fingering the leather wrapped grip of his greatsword uneasily.

“Nyet, if ve move now dey see us sure,” Ivan replied. They pressed themselves lower into the grass willing themselves to be invisible. The riders came on, the thunder of their hooves audible as they approached. Camilla gripped her weapon and tried to hold her breath although there as no way the small horde could hear anything over the thunder of hooves. A horn split the half night, with a rending moan. Camilla saw another group of horsemen break from concealment and race towards the first. The chaos worshippers seemed to spring up out of the earth, but more likely they had been dismounted along a stream bed. War cries rang in the distance as both parties raced to intercept each other, the air darkening with arrows and hurled javelins. Even from nearly a mile away the impact was clear in the frosty northern air, horses screamed and men screamed as the two heretic forces tore into each other in what looked to Camilla like mindless and pointless slaughter.

“Let’s get out of here,” Camilla said quietly, “the sooner we are out of this cursed place the better.”
@POOHEAD189

"I agree," Cyrdic breathed, placing a hand on Camilla's back to reassure his companion. She looked to him and gave a smile that caused his heart to stir. "And to tink, I had once wanted to trav'el" she quipped. He grinned. "Next time somewhere with less Chaos," he whispered. Ivan spurred them onwards, and Skaldi nearly barreled into Cyrdic and Camilla. Not for lack of vision, but for a single minded determination to get where he was going, edging them on as well.

The tall grass brushed Cyrdic's jawline as he ran, half crouched in their travels, save Skaldi who simply hustled and kept up. As they waded through the sea of grass, Cyrdic's mind caught up with him and he wondered about Camilla's eyesight being so acute. It's true, he felt she had better eyesight than he before his sword began to imbue him with a few minor blessings of Ulric, ones he still wasn't entirely certain he deserved. But after that, though his sense of smell and hearing surpassed his eyes, his night vision had become very good. He wasn't sure he could have spotted the chaos marauders with such accuracy as she did. But Dietrichia had revealed there was no taint on Camilla. He would need to talk with her soon.

A curt cry up front caused Cyrdic's heart to skip a beat, followed by a grunt from Ivan. Cyrdic and Camilla had to inch forward a bit more to see Ivan holding Konrad by the man's backplate, the only thing keeping him from falling nearly 30 paces to the next level as the plains began to plummet into the mountain range. Ivan yanked him back with his burly strength. Konrad looked as if he had just witnessed a blood sacrifice, his eyes were so wide.

"Thank you, herr Petrovich," Konrad breathed.

"Da, do not mention it." Ivan said merrily, clapping the man across the cheek. He had attempted to reassure him by smacking his shoulder, but the dark and the grass messed up his aim, and he slapped him. "Och, sovvy! Sovvy," Ivan said, suddenly feeling quite embarrassed, and Konrad quite dazed at the unexpected blow. Cyrdic shook his head. Yantz pipped up. "Make it up to him by carrying him, we need to go around."

"There are caves," Dietrichia suddenly said. Her pupiless eyes suddenly normal as all looked to her, and she pointed southwest. "We go round this drop, and go down another level. There will be caves...a great schism of land once occurred here." Konrad blinked lazily, trying to regain his senses. "How can you tell, Fraulien?" he asked, wary of the witch but still not above using her knowledge to get to a place they could rest.

"I go by what the stars guide me."

"If there's caves, I'll find them. Follow me." Skaldi grumbled, and headed southwards less than a mile, the rest following until they made it to a steep slope and gave them an uncomfortable and jagged road down to the next, much smaller plateau than then descended into the mountainous slopes that separated the lands of the Chaos marauders with those of the Chaos Dwarfs and their fortresses of darkness.
@Penny

Skaldi led them along the mountainside without hesitation. Every now and then the dwarf would and wrap a knuckle against a stone, or sniff at a crack in the rock, or some other arcane action which seemed to have meaning only to himself. The descended slowly down the cragy slope until they came to an overhang that Skaldi had apparently been expecting. At the back of the rocky ledge was a narrow fissure, perhaps three feet wide.

“Aye that’ll be it,” the dwarf remarked with evident satisfaction. Camilla peered at the crack dubiously, it was going to be a very tight fit for Ivan and even Cydric would struggle. She cast a look back at Dietricha who seemed to be picking mountain flowers and threading them through her unkempt hair. Yantz, still pale from the encounter with the Dragon Ogre, caught her glance and shrugged apologetically. Wind whipped up the mountain side like a knife making Camilla shiver and hug her cloak tighter around her.

“Well I suppose it is better than freezing to death out here, better get your armor off gentlemen,” Camilla pointed out. Grumbling but obeying the men began to strip out of there armor. Camilla began gathering the fallen branches of some of the scrubby stunted trees that clawed their way into the rock. Skaldi took it a step further and simply uprooted a half dozen with jerks of his powerfully muscled arms.

“I’ll go first,” Skaldi declared and turned sideways to squeeze through the narrow opening, his heavy set body scraping against the stone before he disappeared from view. Camilla, eager to get out of the cold, went next, slipping easily between the rock faces. The narrow point lasted perhaps ten feet before the cavern opened out to something that a wagon might fit through if its driver were very careful, it stretched away, curving out of sight about twenty feet on, the way was rough, much rougher than she had expected.

“It opens out,” she called back, “come on in.”

“Its always the way last, harder stone close to the surface, otherwise it would ave worn away and collapsed,” the dwarf noted with professional pride. Yantz, looking thin without his armor but still wrapped in powerful cords of muscle squirmed through next, the firewood they had gathered was wrapped in his cloak that he dragged behind him like a body. Dietricha joined them next looking satisfied if a little ridiculous with all the flowers in her hair. Heavy cursing in Kislivite followed her and for a moment she feared Ivan had gotten stuck in the narrow entrance but there was a sudden unpleasant scraping sound and the big man stumbled into view. A scraped bloody area was visible at his shoulder and hip.

“Lady de.. Whatever,” Konrad whispered and Camilla moved back along the passageway and began to pass weapons and armor back to the remainder of the group. Konrad came through next. Camilla had a sudden terror that some unseen enemy would strike while Cydric was alone on the mountain side. The fear choked her for a long moment before Cydric squeezed through, grunting with effort and holding his sword out to the side. She clasped his hand and pulled him through, feeling only the slightest scrape on the rock.

They climbed down the descending chambers for another ten minutes before Skaldi discovered a pool of water fed by a slow trickle from the rock and declared it was safe to stop. They built a small fire from the timber they had scavenged and clustered around it for warmth, trying to shed the enervating cold of the mountains. There wasn’t much food, only a little hard tack and ancient cheese that left them all hungry.

“There will be cave mushrooms as we get deeper,” Skaldi assured them with something like relish, a feeling which Camilla couldn’t share but her empty belly approved of.

“Always is where there is water,” he explained, sniffing at the pool before dipping his leather water skin in to fill it up.
@POOHEAD189

They posted what kindling they had among the small cavern they found themselves in and made torches to give a calm, hearth-like light to the small resting area. Skaldi had gone into the next cavern, searching for Mushrooms as the group found places to comfortably sit or sleep for the night, though many of them found themselves too tired to sleep.

Ivan and Boris had taken to Konrad, inviting him over for a few war stories and encouraging him to join in their boasting. Ivan gave Cyrdic a wink, and the normally grim sergeant grinned in amusement, knowing that a second reason they had busied Konrad was so that he and Camilla could spend a few scant hours together somewhat alone before the group had to move again.

The Witch had gathered her skirts and had made a small pile of clothing to sleep on, clearly a bit too cultured to have enjoyed such travel the past week. At first it seemed as if she had attempted to invoke an incantation, but she had been either too tired or not in the mood, or perhaps something had been interfering with her magic within the caves, so she gave up and began to try and find some sleep. Yantz mostly kept to himself, though his eyes subtly explored the two women they had in their group, until his gaze met Cyrdic's, and the man decided it was best to find some sleep. Cyrdic knew his type. He did not mean any harm, but hard men on Campaign or hired swords often took what pleasures they could, and more often than not paid for company.

Cyrdic and Camilla had found a small nook to sit within, relatively in the dark and behind a few stalactites but still within the same greater chamber. Wordlessly, the sergeant took off his ruined furs and placed them down for Camilla to use to gain some bit of comfort. "Give it a few more days, we'll be back in the lands of men," he said to her. As he spoke, he realized that he had now gone beyond what the maps of the Empire designated as the ends of the world, and yet still they had not seen the wastes proper. Briefly, he was scared that the Chaos magics had messed with time, as he had heard such wild stories when he was younger, that time flowed differently. But Dietrichia would have told them if that were so, and the fear ebbed away.

How was old he now? He had turned 27 this past winter, but they had moved so often he couldn't recall the exact date. He wondered if his father and mother were still in Ostland, or his younger siblings. He couldn't remember how many he had. His mother had been pregnant when he had left for the army. "Doesn't matter," he breathed, drawing a look from Camilla. He lifted his brows, youth returning to his face for a moment as he looked somewhat embarrassed. "Nothing," he said with a smile.

His equipment leaned upon a large rock next to the couple, as did Camilla's. Their two swords laying beside one another, as if drawn together by some unknown string of fate or magic influence. He took one long look at the two blades, and then turned to Camilla. He couldn't help himself, and he pulled her into a sincere hug, before holding her at arms length. "Don't ever scare me like that again." He told her.

Scaring him and getting them both into trouble was what she did best, but the Chaos wastes were pushing it. He brushed some hair out of her eyes. "By Taal, I missed you." He said, chuckling, though his mirth soon died and instead, there was a tenderness to his eyes. "I truly did."
@Penny

“I missed you too,” Camilla breathed as Cydric held her close. Her body trembled slightly, remembering the hardships and horrors of the past few weeks. The nightmare voyage, the trek across the ice and the battle before the strange temple. She had tried to make herself numb, unable to feel but it was a losing game.

“I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” she whispered. Cydric patted her back consolingly.

“We never gave up on you, we marched straight from the battlefield at Krondstat, soon as we heard,” Cydric told her as she snuggled close to his chest. Camilla hadn’t thought of the battle or the Count and his forces since she had been taken by the Norscans.

“Was the battle…” she began in a worried tone.

“Up in the air when we left,” Cydric told her, “But I think we might have pulled it off.” Camilla nodded her head, hoping that she hadn’t become the woman who came up with a plan that got an Elector Count killed. It all seemed so far away, whereas Gorn and his talk of altars and valleys seemed so close.

“They were going to take me to a shrine to one of the Chaos God’s,” she whispered in a barely audible voice.

“I think they wanted me to become… like them.”

“We would never let that happen,” Cydric assured her, “Besides black really isn’t your color.” Camilla made a gasping sound halfway between a laugh and a sob at the joke. Her chest heaving to contain both tears and laughter. The had said it was her destiny, that it would happen. Camilla didn’t know if she believed in destiny, she wanted to believe she had a choice and that she would choose what was right. Her hand spasmed as if eager for her sword but she balled the hand into a fist instead. She didn’t want to think about fate right now.

She told Cydric everything that had occured from the moment they had parted at the counts war camp. Some of it she was pleased with, especially with how she had burned the Northlanders ships but most of it was grey and fearful, almost like a nightmare. Cydric filled her in as well, though his explanation as to exactly who Dietricha and Yantz were, and what they were doing with the small company was vague and unsatisfying.

The others, seeing that Camilla and Cydric were awake, fell into exhausted sleep, giving the the first watch by default. It was hard to stay awake with the warm glow of the fire still smouldering warm. She didn’t like caves, the pair of them didn’t have a stellar reputation with trips beneath the earth, but she supposed it was at least better than freezing half to death on the icy mountainside.

@POOHEAD189

While they didn't necessarily have the privacy Cyrdic or Camilla wanted (something they had been lacking for weeks now), Cyrdic was content with holding her as they tried to find what sleep they may. His broad chest rising and falling, swelling against her deceptively delicate back as his arms held her. However, despite the proximity of his closest companion, he couldn't remember the dreams he was having of softer beds and the very same woman-

"Get up manling!" A harsh whisper was dribbled into his ear, and a strong hand shaking his shoulder with an urgency that belied danger. Cyrdic felt himself slowly awaken, and then all at once. His eyes shot open, and he cleared his throat. "What?" He began to ask, only for Skaldi to shush him, and place his broad hand over Camilla's mouth as she came to. Cyrdic could see (and feel) her reaching for her dagger instinctively until she realized it was Skaldi doing the waking.

"What?" Cyrdic mouthed.

The torches were now doused, though a bit of light from a tunnel behind them gave him some vision to go by. The other companions were now being awoken by Ivan and his fellow Kislevite. Konrad nearly hit Boris before he realized what he was doing.

"We must go, now." Skaldi said under his breath. "There is a Dawi-Zharr patrol deeper within the caves, with a score or more Grobi slaves. It's late morning, we're due to leave already." With a strength that was beyond even the Dwarf's formidable muscles, he helped lift Cyrdic to his feet before the Ostland Mercenary's senses returned and he took to standing himself, helping Camilla up in turn and grabbing his sword.

Suddenly, in the distance he heard grunts, and a deep, harsh language that seemed a vile take on the Khazalid he would hear Skaldi mutter. He felt a fool for not hearing it earlier, and he cursed himself under his breath. "What?" Camilla asked, confused. Cyrdic supposed it was only his keen ears that could pick up the faint echoes off the walls. "Skaldi's right, we have to go." Cyrdic confirmed as a light erupted before them, Dietrichia holding up a ball of light that shined like a star to guide them.

"While you lot were lazing about, I found an exit." Skaldi said. "Not too steep, cept for maybe the witch." Cyrdic shook his head. 'Not steep' to Skaldi might well be a verticle drop. It was when an Orcish roar of pain echoed off the walls that the others suddenly spun in anxious fear, now realizing just how true Skaldi and Cyrdic's warnings were.

The Dwarf sped off, Cyrdic pulling Camilla in that direction as the others followed swiftly behind, having hastily picked up what items they could. But they couldn't find every single bit of crumb or torch they had left in the dark. Their small camp would be discovered before long. Luckily, Skaldi merely needed to lead them through two curvaceous tunnels before they abruptly found the sun, piercing their vision and causing Cyrdic to race his thick forearm over his eyes.

Once his vision adjusted, the view was both beautiful and daunting. Beneath the cavern entrance was a rocky slope that lead downwards for probably a thousand feet. On the horizon, mountains that mirrored the ones they were one stood in the distance, cutting into the sky. The edge of the DarkLands, which while visible, was very many miles away. Between there and here was a jagged, barren, and harsh landscape of rock, almost reddish in hue. But it was not the lack of green that baffled Cyrdic, nor the active volcanoes that seemed to sprout up out of the ground every two dozen miles.

To the south, Cyrdic saw something he did not think was possible. A skeleton rose up, half buried within the tainted earth of the land. The remains of a great beast that stretched for miles. If he had to guess, and he could not truly appreciate significance of the measurement at the moment, it looked as large as Marienburg. "By Sigmar's Hammer." He breathed.
@Penny

“Testico de Ranald,” Camilla breathed as she stumbled into the light and saw the gigantic skeleton. The cold mountain air whipped up to meet them, she desperately needed a warmer cloak, her slight frame shed the heat quickly, but like many other things that was going to have to wait.

“Gawp later, run now,” Skaldi instructed. The began to skid and slide down the steep slope knocking loose a small torrent of stones and pebbles. Camilla, light on her feet and trained in a variety of acrobatic techniques, skipped from tree to three, catching hold of their twisted trunks to break her momentum. Yantz tried to follow her example but was slowed by the fact that he held Dietricha like a living anchor. The sorceresses face was disapproving but not panicked. Above them came bestial shouts and Camilla looked up in time to see brutish greenskin faces appearing from the cave opening. An arrow streaked past and lodged in a tree a few inches from Camilla’s hand. Yantz, improbabley, pulled his cavalry pistol from his belt and, still sliding and holding his mistress by the collar, fired one handed back up the slope. A greenskin roared and pitched forward, tumbling down the mountain side in a growing cloud of dust. More arrows flicked past though the shots were blind for the pall.

The slope began to shallow and Camilla saw a four foot crevasse ahead.

“Jump! Jump!” she yelled and suited action to words, gathering her feet and springing across the small defile. Cydric stumbled at the last minute but his long legs carried him over the gap with only a stumble. Yantz yelled an improbable obscenity as he hit the edge, throwing Dietricha clear with one hand. The wizard hit the other side of the ledge and rocked back teetering on the brink of the plunge. Camilla grabbed her by the front of her dress and yanked her forward to collapse in a heap against a large boulder. Yantz, his momentum spent, slid over the edge with a scream, twisting and grabbing at the ledge with his finger tips. Ivan seized his forearm and heaved propelling the Imperial up and over the gap before launching himself across in a great ursine bound. More arrows flew past, a dozen greenskins were out of the cave now, firing down with an enthusiasm which fortunately wasn’t matched by skill. Konrad and Skaldi jumped across with less effort, forewarned by the struggles of the rest of the group.

Suddenly the greenskins were rushing down the slope at a heedless charge, their feet somehow finding purchase. Camilla cursed the fact that she had lost her pistols when the Norscan’s had kidnapped her and whipped the curved blade free of its scabbard.

“Attento! Preparatii!!” she yelled. Cydric already had his sword drawn and ready while the others scrambled to their feet. A pair of greenskins went down on the uncertain footing but the rest made the bottom of the slope and leaped across the crevasse. Camilla slid sideways to avoid an arcing sabre and then cut back savagely, the curved elven blade slicing into the thick tendons at the back of the beasts knees. The greenskin let out a scream of pain and Camilla spun around and drove her elbow into the things sternum. The greenskin toppled back on its mutilated legs and tumbled screaming into the crevasse. Cydric was recovering his blade, already slick with blood and Kondrad was on his feet, unlimbering his great sword. More greenskins were leaping the chasm, wicked blades swinging. Yantz was on the ground shield gripped in both hands as two of the goblin like things hacked down at it, in great showers of sparks. A goblin with vast tusks rose behind Cydric and drew back a hatchet. Camilla slipped under a saber cut severed the weapon hand at the wrist. The thing screamed and staggered back into a disembowling stroke of Cydrics sword.

More greenskins were getting across now, maybe as many as a score. Camilla swept a blade aside with a flick of her wrist and drove one of the greenskins back. She saw Ivan seize one by the neck and pitch it into the crevasse, the thing caught the ledge of rock with its fingertips for a moment before the Kislivite gleefully bought his boot down on the boney digits and sent the thing plummeting to its death. There was so much dust now that it was difficult to see. A pistol boomed with a yellow flash and someone screamed a curse. Suddenly two goblins leaped from the pall of dirt one going high and the other low. Camilla’s sword swept in a graceful figure eight sending sparks flying as her feet danced back across the broken ground ahead of the onslaught.

The melee was brutal and dirty, with rocks and dust kicking up as what Greenskins that made it over the crevasse attacked with the normal strength and cunning a Greenskin would possess. Though they lacked a certain energy to their movements, and as Cyrdic hacked off the arm of an Orc, it looked at its arm stupidly rather than continue to attack him with the unbridaled rage he had seen them possess. He didn't let the opportunity slide, and he elbowed the thick monster back to tumble down the crevasse and into a near endless chasm.

An electric shock filled the air, and four more Greenskins fell by a spell cast from the witch, just as Konrad lopped a Goblin in half. It seemed over for the moment, until a curse from above drew their attention. The stocky but devilish figure of their Chaos Dwarf task master stood at the cavern entrance, flanked by a few more Goblins. It had a similar build to Skaldi, though sloping, ram-like horns protruded from his forehead, and his legs were very goat-like as well, ending in hooves. His beard was jet black, with brass ringlet set upon it, and his eyes were red as lit coals.

Skaldi scowled at the very sight of his dark kin, even taking a step forward as if to go up and personally fight him. "Someone shoot him or I'll go up there an-" Cyrdic and Ivan pulled him back, however. Despite his short stature, he threatened to break away from their grip. "Vhe haf to go, Skaldi," Ivan implored. "Please," Camilla said to the Dwarf. His face was set for a moment more, but it broke down into a reluctant resignation at their pulling and Camilla's accent.

The group kept moving, making it to flat ground after a few hundred more feet of rocky terrain. Even with their boots on, the ground felt uncomfortable to walk on despite its hard, rock-like surety. The volcanoes rose up around them, like hellish pillars amid a temple of horrors. The landscape was quite different than what Cyrdic was used to. It was neither Chaos tainted or ravaged by magics. It seemed as if the very world released its anger here. He doubted they would find no rivers but flows of lava throughout the entire landscape. They needed to hurry.

The group ran at a fast trot, though Skaldi with his short legs sprinted for his life. As they ran, they discovered that bones littered the ground, and the air was still thin like they were still at a high altitude. Cyrdic discovered he didn't give a damn, as long as they made it across soon.

"Sorceress, do you not know of any way we could escape here with magical aid?" Konrad called reluctantly, still unsure as to if it was righteous or not to associate with a witch. Dietrichia's arm was held by Yantz, though she shimmied as fast as her skirts could allow her to. "We must find a place to rest. I might have a way!"
@Penny

The chaos dwarves seemed slow to pursue, perhaps understandably reluctant to follow where their servants had perished. Occasionally a sound like a brazen horn could be heard baying in the distance, echoing weirdly of the blackened landscape. The ground grew more level as they moved but it was rent with chasms and crevasse. They walked through packed ash and across plates of blackened volcanic basalt. Trees of a sort rose occasionally, though they seemed more like ancient petrified things, alive now due to the yellow brownish fungus that covered them.

There pace slowed as the morning wore on and no pursuit appeared save for the blasts of horns. The foul dwarves were raising the alarm but it was clear they didn’t expect an incursion into their lands from the east. Camilla didn’t doubt that given enough time they would overcome that limitation and the small party would be overwhelmed.

“Ok,” Camilla said as they took a few minutes rest in a shallow defile. Her stomach rumbled and she felt weak from lack of food but they were on the very last of their rations and were facing days or weeks across the barren volcanic wasteland.

“Maybe we should double back to the steppe,” the Tilean suggested as she took a sip from the nearly depleted water skin Cydric offered her.

“At least we can find food and water there, perhaps we could strike south and…”

“NO!” Dietricha hissed urgently. All eyes turned to the wizard, her dress, always a little threadbare was filthy and covered with ash. Not that any of them were in much better shape of course.

“We don’t have any other choice,” Konrad said, spitting to clear the taste of sulfur from his mouth.

“It is turn back or starve,” he said instently. Dietricha was shaking her head emphatically.

“We need to be in Praag before Hexensnacht, and they stars already run against us,” she said, her voice unusually serious and sombre. Yantz nodded his head, though he looked miserable at the pronouncement. Camilla place a balled fist on each hip.

“Hexensnact?!” Ivan exploded. His accent made the word sound like a multisyllabic sneeze. He looked incredulously at the wizard.

“By za Gods ve vouln’t make it if ve had flat plains and vinged horses!” Camilla found that she had no idea what the date was. It had been close to midwinter when they had left the Count’s warcamp to being the campaign against the Norscans, but the days and weeks had blurred into each other in this place of infernal night.

“What is Hexensnact?” she asked, “and why in the name of Shayalla’s tits do we need to be in Praag by then?”

“It is the first day of the new year, as you manlings reckon things,” Skaldi put in, clearly pleased to have a chance to jibe at an inferior and human way of doing things.

“A fell day,” Konrad amplified, “the dead can walk on Hexensnact they say.” Camilla nodded her head.

“Alright, so back to the why in Shyalla’s tits part of the question…”

Dietricha looked distinctly uncomfortable and began to wring her hands together. Camilla exchanged glances with Cydric completely at a loss. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and waited.

“It is written in the stars, you must understand I cannot say too much,” Dietricha explained.

“Can’t or wont?” Camilla asked, hunger making her more irritable than she might have normally been. Yantz stepped forward hands held palm out in a calming motion.

“She can’t talk much about the future, buggers me why, but bad things happen if you know too much,” he explained. The Imperial’s lip was trembling and Camilla realised, with a shock, that the was terrified. There was more fear in his eyes right at this moment then there had been fighting the dragon ogre. Camilla shared another guarded look with Cydric. Something in his eyes convinced her to listen.

“Ok… so lets assume that what you are saying is true. How are we supposed to cross hundreds of miles of ash choked wasteland with no horses, no food and a whole nation of evil dwarves out to kill us?” she asked in disgust. Skaldi began to grumble something about evil dwarves but Camilla silenced him with a fiery glare. Dietricha straightened, clearly relieved that she wasn’t going to be pressed any further on the point.

“If you can get me to a temple of the Bull God, I can do the rest.” It might have just been coincidence that the earth grumbled violently at that exact moment.

@POOHEAD189