Emrys: part 1

[Altzeat]

Sitting in the hut in the centre of the village Emrys looked up into the angry face of the warlord. This wasn’t a place that most of the warriors in the fort wanted but Emrys didn’t care. There was nothing the warlord could do to him.

‘Why can we not attack them?’ he growled fiercely at his face. There was a baggage train coming down the road seven miles away and he wanted to send all his war band to intercept them.

‘Because if you attack them now your warriors will die. They will return in two days. They are only going to the crest of the hill yonder’ he waved his hand towards a tall mound. ‘They will attack you tomorrow. Send some of your warriors out now and get them to move towards that hill. If they do not move until they come to attack us they can take the wagons with little trouble.’

The warrior sat down and surprisingly sighed. ‘How do you know this?’ he asked perplexed. Emrys had always confused him.

‘Because I see it.’ Emrys replied simply. ‘Trust my word or not, you send your men to attack now and they all die. Follow my plan and you will kill them all.’

‘You have never failed me before, so I will trust you once more.’ The warrior said and left the tent to send warriors out to the hill.


The next morning Emrys sat on his horse at the exit of the fort. Dinad the warcheif sat on his horse next to him. At the bottom of the hill was stood a force of about two hundred dwarfs.

‘Why do they come to attack us? I thought dwarfs were more likely to stay in defence?’ a young warrior was saying in the ranks of warriors behind them. No one could answer as, as far as they knew for they weren’t amazingly well travelled men for the most part, dwarfs lived in mountains and didn’t leave them.

‘They want something’ Emrys whispered. He had bean all over the northern lands and travelled much of the world. He had visited dwarf strongholds and had been involved in many battles with dwarfs, fighting with and against them. Dinad leaned towards him and then looked at the dwarfs.

‘What do you think it is?’ he asked

‘I do not know, but dwarfs are likely to fight fiercely for something they want, or need.’ Emrys replied and spurred his horse forwards. He knew that whatever it was they wanted, the tribe wouldn’t give them. They were hard pressed to survive let alone have anything worth taking.

The army behind him started to move, and roar. Dinad spurred his horse fast and drew his sword. Emrys did the same and prepared to hit the dwarf lines. 70 Horsemen hit the lines of the dwarfs and many were cut down by the strong strokes of dwarf’s axes. Emrys hacked left and right and heard the footmen hit the dwarf’s lines. Everywhere was chaos as dwarven warriors battled fiercely and didn’t let any ground go.

But this was the war bands land. They would not let the dwarfs have it. They fought savagely, screaming into dwarf’s faces as they hacked them down.

Fighting towards the centre of the dwarfs Emrys and Dinad came across the Leader. He was surrounded by long beards and was grim faced. Having been thrown from the horses not long into the battle the two men pushed forwards, also surrounded by some of their best warriors. Sword clashed with axe as they fought, Dinad cutting down two long beards quickly and crashing into the leader of the dwarfs.

Emrys fought hard and then heard a shout at the back of the dwarfs’ lines. The men that Dinad had sent out earlier were returning to the battle. Behind them a short way were the wagons, all on horses and around them more men eager to join the fray.

As more and more warriors plunged in the dwarf’s realised they had no chance. Calling out the dwarven lord signalled a retreat. Dinad tried to run after him, the fire of battle alight in his eyes.

Emrys stopped him ‘there will be more than enough bloodshed soon, do not be so eager.’

Looking around they had killed a surprisingly small amount of the dwarfs, the most having died in the first charge. Then the men that had brought the wagons walked up to wear the leader stood.

‘Lord, the wagons are full of things form the dwarves homes. Weapons, clothes, possessions, Gold’ the men pressed forwards to look at the wagons. They were indeed packed like someone moving a long way away.

‘That was not all that we found up there, there was a group of thirty or more slayers, gathered around an item. We could not see what it was, but luckily for us it was something important, as the slayers did not attack us but instead left the wagons and ran with it. Dwarf’s leaving gold and weapons! I can only imagine what that item is’ the man finished red faced; he had seen his life flash before his eyes when he saw the faces and tattoos of the slayers. He knew of their prowess in battle and did not want to test it. Leave that to the heroes.

‘Move the men to the fort, move the wagons in as well and unload them, sort through everything that we can use.’ Dinad said, he didn’t much care for the gold, he was happy enough living the way he did, but the weapons, well, dwarves weapons were well made and always definitely to be reckoned with.

Emrys looked at him. ‘Make sure nothing is broken.’ He said simply and walked up the hill towards the fort.


(comments would be welcome, this is the longest thing i think i have written in about two years so be gentle :lol: )

[Jacob_White]

Intresting Altzeat, I would be intrested to read on, you've got me hooked!

[Altzeat]

Emrys looked over the various items that the men had brought into the town. They were all of good quality, which didn’t surprise him, them being made by dwarfish hands. He knew that a lot of the warriors in the tribe wanted to get there hands on the weapons, as they also knew that the dwarfs made some of the best weapons on the world. But Emrys would not allow this; he wanted to know why the dwarfs were running, and if the tribe was in any danger. Anything that would make slayers turn from a fight was obviously very important, and he doubted it was just because they wanted to protect something. The best way that a slayer could protect something would be to kill everything that might threaten it.

No, there was something strange going on and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. As he stood, deep in thought, a number of men entered the building that the artefacts were being kept. They came and stood around the man and one spoke.

‘Sir, the dwarfs have stopped and made a camp, they have also started building fortifications and it doesn’t look like they mean to leave any time soon.’

Emrys nodded at the news, not surprised, a dwarf that was running away was only slightly stranger than a dwarf that passed up an opportunity to fortify something. He looked at another man that was trying to get his attention.

‘And what have you found?’ he asked looking at the scout.

‘There is more dwarfs travelling towards us. They have spoken to some of the dwarfs that we encountered and are now heading towards where they are encamped.’ He said, then added ‘And they have weapons with them, large iron things on wheels, nothing like I have seen before.’

‘Cannons’ Emrys whispered to himself, and seeing the look on the mans face added ‘A weapon that spits balls of metal into the enemy, extremely destructive. We do not want to face a dwarf stronghold if it has cannons. Summon Dinad, I need to give him council’

Later on that day Emrys and Dinad were alone in the cavernous main hall.

‘So’ Dinad was saying, trying to understand everything that Emrys had just told him ‘you want me to extend the hand of friendship to the dwarfs? Just because they have some stupid weapons?’

‘No, if you had listened to me Dinad you would understand that they are hiding from something, and if they are hiding from something it means that maybe we should be as well. Are you not even curious to find out why they did not attack us with there full force? Or why a group of slayers turned from a battle? There is something happening and I think that it is going to be bad.’

With that he stood up and turned to leave.


‘Follow my advice Dinad, or we will all suffer.’ He said darkly then stalked from the room.

It was a week after Emrys and Dinad had discussed what they should do, and still Dinad had done nothing. Emrys had lost his temper with the man many times in the past week and had ended up storming out of the village with a number of the inhabitants, intent on going to speak with the dwarfs himself.

When Emrys had left the village Dinad sat, dining with some of his best warriors. As they ate and drank, singing old songs and telling stories, the doors at the end of the hall opened to reveal a hooded man stood there. He walked into the room and stood at the end of the long table. The hood turned left and right, looking at each warrior in turn, and as the unseen eyes fell on each man they knew that something about this man was not right.

And then they smelled him.

‘Who are you?’ Dinad asked loudly, standing up and pointing with a thick finger at the man ‘Why have you disturbed out meal so?’

A soft gurgling laugh came from the hood and the man stepped forwards again.

‘I bring a gift.’ He said in a voice full of sickness ‘From the grandfather’

As he said this the man bent double, still laughing his sickly laugh and then coughed violently. Blood spattered the floor and edge of the table, and then he coughed again, more blood escaping his lips. Then he started heaving. He put both hands on the table to steady himself, but the heaving continued, huge painful sounding retches emitted from under the hood, and then it fell back revealing a face so ravaged by illness and plague that it was barely human.

‘He is a plague carrier!’ one of the men shouted and they all rose, pushing back chairs and unsheathing swords.

‘Yes, but that is not all I carry.’ The man said, forcing the words out between retches. His mouth and face were now covered in blood. Suddenly he started to choke as something forced its way up his throat. With a huge cough and another shower of blood, along with other, smaller greyer bits, something landed on the table. The men looked on in horror as the thing stood up on many legs and unfolded wings. A huge insect stood on the table, the size of a grown mans fist, with huge putrid eyes, pus oozing from its sharp mandibles, and a long serrated sting. The man that had thrown this abomination was stood behind it, tears of pain rolling down his eyes, but laughing that disgusting laugh. Then, quit suddenly, his body was racked with spasms. Blood erupted from his stomach and many more of the insects bursts forth, more climbing out through his mouth, and others making more holes in the mans body to get out. With a ferocious buzzing the insects took to the air, flying at the men still stood in shock. Some tried to fend them off, but others were too busy throwing up at the sight of the intruder. The insects landed on the men, stinging and biting wherever they could. With just one sting or bite a man would fall, the area around the wounds instantly sprouting growths and blackening the skin. The only man that wasn’t bitten was Dinad, but all he could do was watch in terror as his men fell all around him.

He could hear screams from outside the building and he could but wonder at what atrocities where happening outside. As he stood, rooted to the spot with fear and revulsion, the doors opened once again. Stood there this time was a sight that would freeze the blood of any man. 6 daemons stood there, there skin hanging in ragged strips of there skin and putrid lacerations covered every inch of them. From the malformed mouths blood and pus dripped onto the floor. Each of them carried a sword, twisted and rusting, each engraved with hideous runes that made Dinad wince to look at. But in there centre stood a huge man wearing thick armour and a horned helm.

‘Congratulations Dinad, leader of the Kilre tribe, for you have been chosen a most spectacular death.’ The man said, and the last thing that Dinad saw was the daemon’s charge towards him, smashing through the tables and sending the insects buzzing angrily into the air.



Notes: yes, this is completly different to what i wrote before, but hang on, cause im trying to plan something to happen :shock: