POOHEAD189

Servants of the Dark Lord

Excellent yessssss

The Sunday Group

I'm sending in my guy tonight or tomorrow, hopefully. Also, he tends to rock out too.

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

The Knights at the table raised eyebrows, and Sir Gilderoy's face grew so hard it looked carved from stone. He sipped his wine, eyeing Camilla for a moment before placing his cup down with an audible 'clink.' "I see you're a very determined woman when it comes to gratitude...very well," He waved a servant over, and spoke to him curtly. "See if the new soldier would like to dine with us these evening."

The servant knelt in acceptance, and then hurried off to fulfill the order. Moving through the stoned halls filled with tapestries and furnished with dusty armor, he made his way to the lower levels where the rooms were more spartan in nature, though still furnished and relatively comfortable. The servant had been the one to show Cyrdic his room, so he knew just where the soldier was. He knocked on the door.

"Herr Becker?" he called. But there was no answer. He tried several more times, and then deigned to look inside by cracking the door, before pushing it fully open. The soldier's shield and armor were in here, as was an empty, stained plate of food he had likewise consumed, but Cyrdic was not there. He went back to report to Gilderoy that he was nowhere to be found.

---

Cyrdic strode along the battlements of the fort, for nothing better than to get a feel of the defenses. His sword was at his hip, the carved and engraved hilt for all the soldiers to see. Along the walls were a varied group of men. Reikland and Ostland crossbowmen, with Talabheim longbowmen, and various riflemen from all over the empire. It seemed the Knights of the Red Sun were thorough in their recruitment.

The towering trees hid nothing, from all he could tell. Oh he imagined hundreds of beastmen and chaos spawn were out there. But even when he stopped along a parapet and gazed hard into the mist, he could see nothing but the fact that he missed hearing Camilla's exotic accent. He let out a low growl at the intrusive thought, swiftly moving along and heading down the stairs of the back wall. His bath had been relaxing, but it had been cold, and he supposed this was as good a time as any to rest a bit in his room, just missing the servant by minutes.

---

"A tragedy," Gilderoy replied mockingly, when he heard of Cyrdic's absence. He was obviously relieved, the Knight not used to sharing such fine food with a common soldier. He was also increasingly annoyed that this ravishing Tilean seemed to be more interested in that brute of a man. "Worry not, my dear. Our company is surely-"

"Oh," a voice said, causing all eyes to turn to the side door of the dining hall. Cyrdic's head poked in, having gotten lost back to his room. He spotted Camilla, and gave her a smile before giving a bow as he backed up. "My apologies, I must have gotten lost..."
@Penny

The Sunday Group

@NarilI love how she is the epitome of a bond girl. Dangerous, attractive, intelligent...what must she do in her downtime!?

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

Cyrdic had been fighting, running, screaming, and now was following the cavalry with the archer scouts that had followed the flanks of the horsemen. Needless to say, he was on his knees when they made it inside the fort's gates. He swayed and nearly swooned, before pointing to the peasant woman to fetch him some water as well with a rough order. He had quite the barbaric look about him, and the woman skittered over to follow his request, much to the chagrin of Gilderoy, who eyed the woman murderously.

A man richly dressed with the fashionable clothes of a scribe strolled out of one of the back doors. He carried a quill and parchment with the same sense of duty as a man might wield a sword, his nose up in the air for all to gaze upon. "Herr Garmmenn" Commander Egling said, dismounting his horse. A ruddy faced young squire who looked normal in every way save him missing one arm, was already leading the charger away with his remaining hand. "Report. What has she found about the cargo?"

The man halted, and haughtily eyed a dripping Cyrdic, who was currently guzzling a bucket of water, soaking his broad chest as half of the bucket's contents spilled down his body. "Speak!" Gilbrecht ordered, drawing Vitus Garmmen's gaze back to his superior officer. "My Lord, it seems the...specimens are healthy, and the time is almost nigh. However, there are a few complications."

"Very good. Meet me in the great hall within the hour." he said, his hands behind his back and his armored chest out. "Yes, my Lord." the scribe said, giving a bow before making his way back inside. The Commander turned and waved to Cyrdic. "See to it this...Imperial soldier is given food and a bed." he ordered. Two servant men hustled out and motioned for Cyrdic to follow. Cyrdic shook his head as Gilderoy began to offer Camilla a proposition.

"Have you dined, marchioness?" he asked her. Cyrdic blinked, and thought for a moment. He hadn't been paying much attention earlier when Boris had said they were getting titles. He never thought he would get one, so it had slipped his mind they'd been provided until just then. At least Camilla deserved it, he thought.

"I'll stay with her," Cyrdic said. "Just allow me and her to bathe."

"What?" the Knight asked incredulously at his word choice. Cyrdic narrowed his eyes. "Well...just let me bathe, and her bathe, and I can grab some food, perhaps."

"You fought bravely soldier," Gilderoy said, diplomatically. "But Sergeants don't dine in the great hall. You'll receive fine food shortly."

Cyrdic left a lingering gaze on Camilla, and nodded. "I'll be in my room." he said aloud, and went to see about that bath.
@Penny

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

Cyrdic stretched his neck, placing a hand on his shoulder as he did so. He freely dripped from smaller cuts, and had nearly lost a finger earlier, not to mention a head. But he'd butchered all of the gors and ungors that had attempted to make it through the main entryway. He couldn't thank the Gods enough that Camilla was still alive, as well. And fiery, he noted with a smile. Funnily enough, her Tilean accent made it seem like he was half a world away, serving in a Tilean siege.

Gildenhoof strode forward, his purple armor catching the light of the rising sun with an eye catching luminescence. He chuckled, his chosen warriors of Slaanesh just behind him. "Hello again, beloved," he purred, his eyes gazing into Camilla's as he licked what was left of his lips.

"You have something we want," the Chaos Champion said. He held out a runic gauntlet, opening his palm. "The vial the man had given you. Give it to me, and we shall spare your lives." His voice carried to them just as it had when they were on the wagon. Still as if he was speaking to them only a meter away.

The Champion spoke with a power that almost forced belief. So sure was the Chosen's speech that Cyrdic almost thought his words were natural laws of the universe. But the Ostlander shook his head and gritted his teeth, and he lifted himself up along the parapets with Camilla, his sword out. It howled within his mind, and the Chaos spawn seemed a bit perturbed by the weapon.

"You heard the lady," Cyrdic called. "Fuck off."

"I will feast on your flesh!" the Slaneeshi warrior cried, and as the Beastman began to roar, another sound echoed from within the trees. Cyrdic tensed for a moment, but realized it was no Dragon roar. No, it was a horn. A horn that sounded very much like an empire horn.

Grunting, roaring, and whimpering Beastmen suddenly looked around warily, and then cried out in horror and pain as heavily armored horsemen burst from the trees, lances lowered and helms down. They weren't Reiksguard, Cyrdic knew. In fact they had the sigil of a Templar order. A sister faction of the Blazing Sun, he recognized them as Knights of the Red Sun. Eccentric zealots, the lot of them. But empire men all of the same. And as if on cue, the sun broke from the treeline, and bathed Cyrdic and Camilla with much needed heat and sunlight. Cyrdic wasn't one to revel or celebrate too hard, but he could scarcely believe his eyes. "Come on," he said, and leaped down off the parapets to wade into the routing Beastmen, hacking at their flanks and legs as they tried to flee.

The Chosen of Chaos had disappeared, as if they never had been there. It seemed almost impossible, but there was no trace of them anywhere. Still, Cyrdic was tired enough to fall to his knees as the beasts ran away, rather than pursue.

He was subsequently hauled to his feet by two Knights, Cyrdic slick with the blood of mutants and Beastman. They got him to his feet with a none-too gentle yank, but he didn't care. They were allies at the moment, as far as he was concerned. The Knight astride his powerful warhorse held his sword pointed towards Camilla a moment longer, before roaring an order for his men to clear the area for any more monsters. He sheathed his unbloodied sword, and lifted his Sallet helmet to reveal a handsome, albeit aging face. His powerful beard had refined streaks of silver to accentuate the black of his hair. "Commander Gilderoy Egling of the Order of the Red Sun, at your service." he said, his voice cultured.

Cyrdic was pushed out into the open to stagger beside Camilla, his breath coming in rasps and his face still streaked with filth. "Sergeant Cyrdic." the man said, still catching his breath. "We were with a caravan of troops that were ransacked by Chaos spawn. Not just these Beastman either. There were demon champions with them." Gilderoy seeing Camilla tired and covered in gore, he turned to his men. "Get them up on the horses. We ride back for Castle Geweiht!" he called out, and soon shouts began to fill the air as the men who had circled the tree line fell back into formation. The Commander took Camilla himself, offering to haul her up upon his charger. "Fear not m'lady, we'll get you some food and water post haste." His next words were powerful. "We ride!"
@Penny

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

Cyrdic would agree with the old fashioned way of siege warfare. A good fire and some boiling oil would do nicely here. Though they would also need some cauldrons and some heavy gloves to wear to pour it with. And then he had a thought. Had Camilla been in a siege before, or had she read of it? He'd heard of Tilean wars from rumors. They didn't fight beasts or great creatures often, but city state against city state. He wanted to ask her about it, but he hardly had the breath for it.

As he went to lift the next stone, Camilla laid her hand on his arm, and he stopped. His face full of youth once more, with how he looked at her, though his features were still quite rugged. She had a way of calming him and making him weak with a whim, and if she wasn't someone he trusted, he would be annoyed at it. But actually, he felt warmly of it. "You got it," he grunted, dropping the rock. The heavy object cracked into the ground, and he drank the water they had greedily, stopping reluctantly after three gulps.

He was also reluctant to break away from her. Her kiss sent sparks through him, and he wrapped his strong arms around her as he kissed her back. Until he heard the roar of beastmen, and he gave her a lopsided smile. Funnily enough, he felt like telling the Beastmen to fuck off so he could have some alone time with Camilla, as if they'd listen or dare incur his Ostland wrath. But since that wasn't going to happen, the next best thing to do was kill them.

He would enjoy that too.

"It's the life we've chosen," he said with a shrug, and pressed his forehead to hers for a warm moment, before the two broke away and gathered up what weapons and tools they had.

When the first Beastmen emerged from the forest, they ran out into the clearing only to slow down slightly, as the old tower looked abandoned, not a human in sight. Cyrdic had suggested they hunker down for a bit until the beasts loped past the treeline to make them easier, less suspecting targets. Camilla gazed through a hole in the stonework, and at her mark, Cyrdic would lift himself up with his long barrel pistol, and fire into the mass of confused chaos spawn.

There were dozens of the beasts, with Elk heads, Bear muzzles, Wolf ears, and mixtures in between. Horns jutted and swayed like trees in a hurricane above the throng. Some had human skulls on their necklaces, and others had ears twined in string.

Cyrdic's first shot punched through a deer headed Ungor, the beast dropping, its jagged spear falling out of its nerveless fingers. Cyrdic quickly went to reload as the horde cried out in outrage and bloodlust, and tramped up the hill in a howling wave, brandishing weapons and third arms.

"Where do you want to go after we take the vial to Altdorf?" Cyrdic asked. He smiled grimly from behind the wall. Having reloaded, he jumped up again and took a chunk out of the chest of a gor. The soldier was speaking as if them leaving here alive was a foregone conclusion. Perhaps to keep Camilla's, and his own, spirits up. "Nuln? Marienburg?" He said. "I've never been south of Talabecland. Maybe take a ship?"
@Penny

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

Cyrdic trudged through the forest tirelessly, eyes dead set on what lay ahead of them. It was hard to tell where the path led, but a ruined tower would not have been his first guess. Then again, it wasn't too farfetched of a thing to spot out in the Drakwald. "Probably made by pioneers, or upstart landowners. I wouldn't be surprised if a giant knocked this thing down, or maybe the Dragon we saw, many years ago."

Cyrdic breathed in through his nose, and realized this well might be their last stand. It had looked like that more than he cared to admit in his life, but unless Sigmar had a miracle up his sleeve, or the Beastman herd had been considerably thinned.

He made his way up to the tower, and hauled himself above the broken wall with his powerful upper body. He would help Camilla up as well if she wished it, and Cyrdic began dropping his weapons and gear so he could more easily stack up the fallen stones before the entrances. His granite-like muscles moved with a methodical workmanship that a Dwarf would be proud of (certainly wouldn't be proud of the stonework, by Grungi!).

"How's our pistols?" He asked her, not looking up from his work until he was done. "Loaded?"
@Penny

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

Despite the exhaustion and the danger, Cyrdic grinned at Camilla. As the beastmen turned, one fell to a dagger in its eye, and Camilla leaping into the fray, her sword thrusting to and fro, poking a beast through the midsection, and keeping the rest at bay. Almost ominously, Cyrdic stepped out of the forest with his Norscan shield and runic sword, the shadows on his face giving him a terrifying quality.

He charged, blocking an Axe and chopping into a mutant's leg. Its stump spurted blood, and he knocked it to the ground before Cyrdic needed to duck from a reikland sword. The beastial leader let out a horrible braying, and attacked Cyrdic with a fury. Its reikland sword hacking and stabbing, swiping with its bear-like paw as well as Cyrdic backpedaled, before suddenly stabbing forward, catching it offguard. His blade spitted the Beast, but it wasn't dead yet.

Its powerful claw grabbed Cyrdic's shield, ripping it off his arm. The Ostlander snarled like a wolf, blocking the next sword attack with his Ulrican blade, now being held in a two handed grip. His next moves were a blur, and the beastman leader was without a head moments later, its body toppling over onto the soft earth, leaving a massive impression upon the ground. Cyrdic picked up his shield, hefting it again and slicing over the back of another beastman.

The empire man felt a very real satisfaction at getting some payback from the slaughter he had seen earlier. Yes they had made the Beasts and chaos warriors take a terrible toll during the attack on the camp, but still. They had been good men, as far as he could tell.
@Penny

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

The Beastman prostrated itself before the Champion of Tzeenth, shuddering and giving hoarse whinnies as it reported the lost scent. Within their tent of human skin, the leaders spoke to one another of their current service to the Dark Gods. Velabrass Blackhelm gazed down at the Beastman. So overwhelmed was the mutant at the sheer majesty of the warrior, it did not even flee or cry out as his glowing blade flashed, shearing the beast in half, its body falling onto the ground with a wet thump.

"Let me go after them," Gildenhoof purred, the Slaaneshi champion moaning with anticipation for the hunt. With horns that twisted sensually above his golden head, his impossibly wide mouth bared fangs as he spoke to the current leader of the Warband, Velabrass Blackhelm, Chosen of the Changer of Ways. "Let me catch the woman...I must feel her once more."

"You'll do nothing to her," Velabrass commanded, standing above Gildenhoof and beside his throne, the material that made up the chair ever shifting, bending reality as if its mere presence was an affront to logic, yet an undeniable truth all at once. "Nothing until I collect the vial she carries. Once we have it, you can do what you will with her." True, there were still beastmen combing the wildlands, and perhaps a few would get lucky. But he doubted it.

"And the man?" Gildenhoof breathed, lust glinting in his eyes. To anyone else, the voice would have drawn them into a trance, luring them into impossible ecstacy as he killed them. To Velabrass, it was an annoyance, nothing more. "The man has great hatred in him, I could smell it. His blade is powerful. Oh it plots our destruction, it does..."

Velabrass knew it. He had foreseen the blade's power, and the warrior that wielded it. It could be a danger even to he.

"Make sure he is dead."

---

With eyes that betrayed the vast intelligence that lurked beneath its monstrous head, Reigynferlgar the Crimson gazed upon the ground far below her, letting out a powerful beat of its wings. Steam and the decaying stench of rotting corpses cascaded out of its great maw as it searched the Reikwald for the ones responsible for her inner torment.

Below the trees covered a vast land, and in the distance she could see various lights dotting the landscape. Within the clouds, destinations that would take days to journey toward could be seen by the naked eye in an instant, with but a turn of the head. She knew she was within the heart of the Empire, but her reserve had fled long ago. Her children had been stolen, and she would rip apart all of Middenland to find who was responsible, and swallow them whole.

---

Even Cyrdic was exhausted. The soft earth of the river's shoreline had pulled at his muscles, but he moved with an Ostland stubborness until Camilla collapsed. He didn't even join her at the water at first. He fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily for a moment as he collected himself.

"I think we're ok for the moment," he breathed, and forced himself to crawl forward until he dunked his head into the water as Camilla had, slurping up as much of the precious liquid as he could before yanking his head out. He tried to stand, but then staggered backwards and fell onto the soft earth, closing his eyes for the moment.

The trees hid the hoof beats of the Beastmen, mere miles away and fast approaching.
@Penny