by The Chosen of Sigmar and Curtio
Story:
Jean-François de Saint-Michel, duc de Gauloises, also known as “the green Michel” because of his family’s heraldry, sat before the huge fireplace in his castle and sighed : « yes my good friend, I would give up my duchy if that only could have prevented me from fighting this bloody massacre and losing so many men and my son Phillipe-Maurice”. The dwarf Lord Belgha Filtersen –lurking at his long pipe, the smoke crinkling up - at his side, nodded his head slowly and replied “ Ay my friend, it is sometimes hard to be a noble and a leader of your people ! Such a power but what a responsibility… It is sad that I arrived too late to contribute to the battle…” They had been friends for years but it seemed like ages. Belgha was rescued by Jean-Francois in the battle of Marlbaureau, in the border region between the great lands of Men and Dwarfs when he almost choked in the poisonous fumes of an evil amulet of the Orc shaman Tobac’ho. When Belga attacked him, the shaman grabbled a fistful of some strange looking dried weeds or herbs, lightened them after wrapping them up in a little piece of paper, inhaled the smoke and blew the smoke in Belgha’s face. Belgha started to cough and his head turned red above his royal beard. Then bleu, then purple and it was only Jean-François’ rescuing hand on his back that brought him back to his senses. In the meantime Tobac’ho escaped and is still said to wander about in the border area. That is why Jean-Francois and Belgha gave instructions to make a warning sign : “Tobac’ho kills”. With every year that the shaman is not found, this sign is made bigger. That is why Belgha and his kin came immediately when they heard of the foul attack on Bastoz, the capital of the duchy of Gauloises. But he only arrived after the battle.
They came from nowhere : an army of undead skeletons in strange looking robes and equally odd but effective weapons. They where accompanied by foul chaos monsters… Where did they come from???
Off course what they did not and could not know, is that the origin of this strange alliance was also exactly the reason why the army entered “from nowhere” while the duchy was celebrating the marriage of the duke’s daughter Gitanes with Peter von Stuyvesant, a imperial noble from Davidorf. But we do…
In the chaos wastes, a local beast Lord called Strayk, nicknamed “Lucky” Strayk for his misfortune, was able to lure the Chaos god Nurgle into a pact, where Nurgle was to take care of some troops and especially a mighty wizard, so that Strayk would be able to undertake a raid on some cities in the north of the Empire. As gods do not like to be tricked or lured into a pact (although the exact situation rests unknown as Nurgle banned this event from the memories of all people who knew of it !) he took his revenge : as agreed he was able to convince a bunch of beast men to follow Strayk but the wizard he “found” was far from mighty ! In fact, Nurgle provided not one but two wizards : Benzon and Hedgez. This twin brothers were once the apprentices of a mighty beast men shaman, but were fired after a few years of study, as they really had no talent whatsoever and they always squabbled which caused their spells to fail. So Nurgle forced Benzon and Hedgez to follow Strayk. And at the dawn of day, Strayk spoke to his raiding army : “You can not be homesick if your ships are burned behind you ! Let’s go and lute”. OK, I admit that his oratorical talents were slightly limited, but what can you possibly expect from a beast man lord whose talents are situated on a slightly less sophisticated level ? He came up whit a cunning plan and ordered Benzon and Hedgez to “teleport” his army to the nearest city in the Empire, using this means of transport would completely surprise the enemy and leave him with no or minimum defenses… Indeed, a cunning plan ! But… the art of teleporting is a difficult one even for mighty mages, and teleporting an whole army is probably even too much for the most of the mightiest wizards. So Benzon and Hedgez looked at each other, shrug their shoulders looked in their huge books of magic under “t” from “teleporting” and started to … squabble ! Hedgez said “I told you not to come here…” and Benzon replied “you should have…” and soon the books of magic were slamming onto some heads as more and more beast men laughed and joined the fight. Strayk covered his eyes with his gloved hand and yelled with a non-déjà-vue “Enough ! Beam us op Scotty… sorry, Benzon ! Hedgez ! Whoever…” So Benzon did his best, and Hedges added his powers and… clouds were gathering, a mist crawled over the wastelands and slowly but steady the landscape became transparent. With a tough of panic all men realized the plan was working !
A few seconds after, when Strayk dared to open his eyes, after he fell the stinging heat of the sun on his armour, he looked around and saw nothing but sand, and sand dunes and some more sand… This could not be the promised land (although the summer temperatures in the Promised Land can also reach some respectable levels, but this is off course something completely different as for him the promised land was the Empire…) ! “Benzon ! Hedgez ! Were are we : what did you fools do ?”. The twin brothers approached Strayk with some hesitation. “My Lord” Hedgez said, “I have never left the Chaos Wastes, so…” And Benzon continued rapidly as he saw the anger growing in Strayk’s eyes “we had some problems with our orientation ! It is possible that we’re slightly out of course… but it can’t be far”. My brother and I will look for some locals to show us the way”. As Strayk passed to the different stages of the choking process, he rapidly understood that the only language he spoke was that of the sword and that would not help him to get him back on course as people tend to forget to show the correct direction when their head is separated from the rest of their body. He hoped that the two mages were more talented on this level. So his men made a camp and all got installed for the night, as Benzon and Hedgez started to circle around the camp hoping to find someone being able and willing them to show were they were. And soon they discovered a sort of construction, so covered in sand, it almost looked like a dune. They found an entrance, a small hole left in a huge stone doorway, but almost fully blocked by tons of desert sand. And there a fresh squabble started “let’s go in and hide for Strayk” – “no, let’s go back” – “no, suppose we find something of interest” – “no, let’s…”. Finally they were fighting and rolling over each other, and in this fight the did not notice that they were heading for the only entrance left of the pyramid complex of Cam’el-Lyght, a famous prince in the Bar’clay region in the kingdom of Nekarra. The fight went on and soon they rolled into the halls of the pyramid. Disturbed in his ancient sleep, Cam’el-Lyght and his troops woke and rose from the grave, and it was only when the full army was ready for battle, all silent and disciplined, that the two brothers noticed the Prince and his troops… The poor Benzon and Hedgez ran away towards the door and hurried to Strayk’s camp, calling out for help. Soon the two armies were facing each other, while the Chaos god Nurgle was roaring with laughter with the poor luck of the two mages. Then he decided to keep his deal of the pact, and by divine intervention, Cam’el-Lyght sent out a messenger – his captain Roth-Mans in a chariot approached the army of Strayk, carrying a white flag made from the cloths of a mummified cat (if you looked more closely it almost looked like a publicity spot for cat food as you could still see the whiskers on the cloths !). Roth-Mans was a huge man in his (much!) younger days and he still looked impressive and handsome (for a dead guy !). He wore golden armour plates, a golden strip around his forehead and carried an odd shaped sword on his belt made out of what used to be fine leather and textile in a bluish color. As he halted the horse skeletons right in front of the beast men’s ranks he started to speak with a loud voice you would not expect from a skeleton. Only his dental sounds were a little bit twisted (but what do you want : even in life he was never able to “camouflage” his lack of his fore teeth due to fall as a rookie chariot driver and the lack of the proper biological tools such as a tongue did not improve his problem !). So Roth-Mans pulled a papyrus scroll from under his belt and read “My Lord issj my Ssjjjheppard, he will lay me down in green passjturessj… ehm no : wrong ssjcroll … “ He took another one out of belt and called out “My Lord Cam’el-Lyght issj ready to form a coalitsjion witjhsj you in order to ressjtore all of hissj former glory and power. He will offer you a compensjation that will be determined upon your effortsj…” He continued with an oath to all of 789 Kehmrian gods and 1.895 divine creatures, but this would take us to long, and by the time he had finished, all of the bestigors were fast asleep. Strayk however saw the opportunity and turned to his men, swaying his axe high above his head and bullied in his know oratorical style “Get up ! You can’t be homesick if you die far from home… let’s join old jaw bone over there !”. Although Roth-Mans was shocked by Strayk’s own style, he was wise and most certainly old enough to keep his mouth. His Lord needed these troops although he was not expected to like the smelly creatures (do not ask me how he could sense the smell, believe me if you ever had the change to smell a beast man (and live to tell the story), you would believe me that even without nostrils, the odor is … quite “beastly”!
And so Strayk was lead before Prince Cam’el-Lyght and they sealed their alliance with a hand shake. In this process Strayk almost crushed the Prince’s elegant hand with his claw like “shovel”. But the Prince kept his sphinx like calm and noble appearance even when Strayk explained him how far they would go together and conquer city after city “to the glory of both the skellies and the beasty boys, ‘cause you gotta fight for your right to paaaaaaaaaaarty!” he said with his arm on the Prince’s shoulder. And as Strayk became more and more self-confident, he blow up his own performances in his recent campaign as well as those of his troops and mages. That is how Benzon and Hedgez were summoned to meet the Prince, just as they were preparing to leave camp as they were afraid that Strayk, with his new ally, would no longer master his anger with his need for assistance far gone.
When they were brought at the Princes feet, Cam’el-Lyght turned around and on his sign, an incredible old men (apparently still alive and not undead as his companions) covered in golden artifacts and signs of his top position in the Khemrian culture came closer. And Cam’el-Lyght said “This is liche priest Ha’Vanna-Cyghar, the first priest of the temple” and as another men, equally covered with the tokens of his status, followed the first priest, Cam’el-Lyght added “and this is Cor-Dyplo-Mathic the second in rank in our Temple. They will study your knowledge of magic and learn you our ways. Tomorrow you will bring us to the capital of the land you call “The Empire” so that we can build us a new khemrian empire there. It will be bigger, more powerful and richer than Nekarra ! So be shall it be written so shall it be done, etcetera etcetera “ These historic last phrase were later used in the movie picture “The king and I” but at least we know were the scriptwriter found his inspiration.
The next morning Benzon and Hedgez were still squabbling about how to return to the empire. Benzon said “We should focus on the city and…” but Hedgez interrupted “How can you focus on something you have never seen, I was never in the capital and …“ Benzon returned “Your memory and your intelligence is simply to limited for that, you crazy little 16K-ram” (which is a special kind of swearing in the bestigor language ; as this is that rude we simply decided not to translate it !). However, when Ha’Vanna-Cyghar and Cor-Dyplo-Mathic arrived, they calmed down knowing that it would be now or never, and as “It is a never, Walter” did not like to be an option, they started to perform their teleport-act all over again supported by the unknown but apparently unlimited powers of the priests.
With the sound of a rolling thunder the four of them opened a gate and when the mist uncovered the landscape, they saw hills (no longer sand dunes), with green forests in a typically Bretonnian landscape. They decided not to tell the priests, Strayk and Ca’mel-Lyght that they were again “slightly out of course” . And that was in fact the first time in their life they did not needed a good squabble in order to decide something…
And that is how they appeared from nowhere in the duchy of Gauloises, where the city of Bastoz was preparing itself for the huge wedding party that was to follow the next day. The duke’s daughter Gitanes de Saint-Michel, who was to marry Peter von Stuyvesant, was a girl of stunning beauty and was sent to King Louen Léoncoeur’s court. There she met Peter, who was send to the King by the Chosen of Sigmar himself, as the Chosen needed a favor from the Bretonnian King. The Chosen knew that Louen obtained a magical artifact from an old dwarf engineer. This device, most probably created by the Old Ones themselves, made a “picture” of all things targeted without needing ink, pencils or any other drawing materials, and the Chosen needed some pictures made by this “Canon’s digital camera” as it was called after its creator (?)… The Chosen needed it as he was stocking all know and unknown things in his library called “der Webseit”. Anyway, as Peter stayed at Louen’s court, he and Gitanes met and they fell in love. Although Jean-François de Saint-Michel was not too happy with his daughter’s fiancé, he knew his daughter well and he realized that her name fitted her well as she always had something of a gipsy girl, making it easier to adapt herself to other cultures. Moreover, the King himself approved this marriage as it would tighten the relations between the Empire and Bretonnian
Furthermore, Steven von Stuyvesant was an important noble and was an inner circle wolf knight, which promised to be a good ally in times of danger. Little did he know that those times would come so swiftly !
With all events for the marriage in preparation, everybody was surprised when a peasant boy entered the market square with his horse Palm (a traditional local Bretonnian variety of a breed of horses especially gifted for working in the fields) calling out “beast men ! beast men ! and some skeleton warriors … help us !). Immediately, the horses were saddled, the men armoured, weapons taken and the Duke rode side by side with Peter von Stuyvesant while the soldiers followed and the city militia of archers and men at arms was mobilized. They headed for the outskirts of farms and houses that lay around the city walls were a cloud of smoke was soon to be seen. And there, in the valley called “Vallée du Genou Blessé”, both of the armies met …
The Armies:
At an early stage in making our list, Curtio and I had chosen to go for an all mounted army. Having lots of armour saves of 1+ and 2+ would keep us standing for a long time even when hit by strength 4 or 5 attacks. Two war machines were added to do a bit of distant killing but these killings wouldn't have a big influence on our tactics. They were there as support. In a duel of three rounds the Grandmaster proofed himself better than the Bretonnian Lord and was declared Marshal.
Looking at our adversaries reactions we soon realized that they hadn't expected this at all. We hadn't begun yet and already we had a psychological advantage. The evil host was composed of large chunks of infantry and lots of chariots. They were hoping to inflict a massive number of impact hits...
Deployment:
Iano chose to use the ambush rule with one beast herd and one warhounds unit. All the rest was deployed in a kind of refused flank with the Skull Catapult on the ruin who provided high ground also. The large forest in our deployment zone was annoying but Curtio and I decided to ignore the threat of ambushers coming out of the forests. To have a little bit of counter on the ambushers I gave my wizard the lore of life. Rolling for the spells 'the master of woods' was one of the spells available to me. Nice!
The Battle:
Jean-François de Saint-Michel continued his story. "As we prayed for the blessing of the Lady, Sigmar, Ulric and whatever other Gods the Empire believe in, the beastmen and undead troops made their careful advance. The enormous Giant was magically ordered to make an extra move towards our lines. As their Hierophant attempted an incantation the damsel in my unit raised a Silver Mirror, disabling the incantation and reflecting the sun into the eyes of the Liche Priest. Trying to get a grasp not to fall he wounded himself. Also the Khemrian charioteers tried to kill the Inner Circle Knights but their two volleys didn't get passed the exceptional armour of the Empire men.
Seeing the Giant so close I saw a early chance for glory but
my men just didn't listen and fled. In the mêlée I was thrown of my horse and
lost my weapons but I could take cover for the monstrosity in the forest. I
followed the remainder of the battle from there, having just my dagger should
anyone dare to come my way... The Imperial knights also lost their nerve and
fled into the battle field. My Errants tried to charge a warhounds pack but
these fled away leaving the Errants in the open. At the other hand of the field
the largest part of our host advanced in order to charge in an early stage of
this battle without being charged
themselves. The Empire Captain on Pegasus,
Winston von West, moved in such a position that he could charge multiple
possible targets but also use his magic ring. The Hierophant saw the magical
bolt coming and magically countered it. Having the Giant so close the crew of
the Trebuchet tried to shoot at him. He was wounded but not enough to kill him.
The Empire artillery took aim at the Tomb Guards killing 4 of them. The
projectile also killed a beastlike creature in the process. The young Empire
nobles with their pistols wounded a foul creature (I think this is what they
call a spawn) twice but not enough to destroy it.
The Giant charges the trebuchet. As he swings his club he only hits the trebuchet. BOIIIIIIIING !!! Such a impact is the hit that both the giant and the trebuchet are trembling. One of the crew members, not wishing to give up that easy, takes faith in his peasants vow and wounds the Giant by striking his hammer on the toe of the Giant. The monster gets into a rage and pursues the crew of the table... Brave men! Both Khemri and Tuskgor chariot fail their charge on Grail Knights and Errants and as the Centigors try to charge the Knights of the Twin tailed Orb, the fleeing warhounds rally in front of them... To help us even further one of the Bray Shaman miscasts. Something must have gone really bad because no more magic seemed possible as their powers were drained temporarily. The Khemrians try to shoot with both the catapult as the charioteers at the small unit of Knights Errant, succeeding in to kills. On our right flank suddenly a unit of warhounds and beastmen threatened our flank. An ambush!
Our Marshal knew the time had come to strike a first hard
blow on our foes. He led an all cavalry attack of the Errants, the Grail Knights
and his own White Wolves into the Khemrian Chariots and rallied warhounds. The
Bretonnian Knights annihilated the chariots, killing the Tomb King. Before
turning to dust he cursed all Bretonni but nothing seemed to happen and the
Grail Knights overran into a unit of Pestigors. The Knights Errant overran into
one of the Bray Shamen. David d'Off and his body guard killed all hounds and
overran into the Centigors. von West charged his Pegasus into the carrions that
had placed themselves in front of the Skull Catapult. Although outnumbered by
the undead birds of prey, he kept the fight in balance. The Pistoliers, like
Errants eager to prove their worth, charged the Tomb Swarms. Shooting and
trampling they succeeded in doing several wounds on the poisonous
creatures but
lost three of their own. Inspired by so much bravery the knights of the Inner
Circle rallied. My son tried to lead the Questing Knights into charging a spawn
but having seen its absorptive powers of wounds they remained in fear. The
Reiksguard, led by Peter von Stuyvesant, turned to protect the exposed flank of
the Questing Knights for the newly arrived warhounds, the other Empire Knights
turned towards the ambushing Beast Herd. Not having completely charged their
great canon the crew only shot a cloud black powder at the herd, not doing any
damage.
Due to the Icon of Racarth the Tomb Guard were able to charge the White Wolves. The Templars killed 2 Centigors but had to flee anyway because they lost the battle. Luckily they weren't captured. Peter von Stuyvesant and his unit were charged by the ambushing warhounds and beast herd. The spawn also charged into the rear of this unit. Would they survive? Although outnumbered in attacks and troops Peter and his men were able to kill one more beast then the Chaos mutations (2 vs. 1). Nevertheless they had to make a run for it. As they did, the pursuing beasts came in front of the Questing Knights. Finally a target... Strayk led his beast herd into the flank of the Grail Knights but 'my living Saints' achieved a victory, overrunning Strayk and his followers and sending the Pestigors running. The Knights Errant killed the Bray Shaman without any remorse but chose not to overrun... The tomb swarms were able to overwhelm the Pistoliers and killed the two survivors. The Captain on Pegasus won his fight with the Carrion... As the ground started to shake I looked behind me. The Giant was making his way back to the battle field as he passed me. Luckily for me, he hadn't noticed me but I decided to follow him, dagger held firm in my hand.
The victorious Knight Errants charged the fleeing Pestigors
killing them all. My other Errants charged into the large unit of Skeletons,
killing half of them, whereas the Inner Circle of the Twin tailed Orb charged
into the flank of the Tomb Guard. They were decimated. As the Questing Knights
charge the warhounds they flee. Not far enough however but in retrieving them
they again expose their flanks. The crew of the Great Canon took aim at the
spawn. It was shot to pieces. von Stuyvesant and his unit rallied and also David
d'Off and his unit succeeded in rallying and turn only to face another threat.
von West succeeded in killing the last carrion. You can say what you want my
Dwarf friend, but that day the 'hummies' showed a courage even you would have
been jealous of.
The White Wolves were charged by two Tuskgor chariots and the Centigors. The Templars all gave their lives for their Grand Master but David d'Off was overrun as he had to flee. Brave man... In the mean while the Tomb Guard and the Skeletons were further slain by the Knights of the Twin tailed Orb and my own Errants. On the other side the Questing Knights are charged in both flanks by the Tomb Swarms and the Beast Herd. Taking some casualties they fled towards the center of the battle field. I followed the Giant as he prepared himself to charge into the rear of the Knights of the Inner Circle. If needed I would sacrifice myself. Although we had neutralized most of the magical influence the Khemrian casters were able to kill an Inner Circle Knight and the Pegasus of von West due to two different incantations. Luckily, von West kept his nerve...
... as he charged the Catapult. Waving his great sword he
killed all three crew members. Strangely enough this resulted in the Skull
Catapult disappearing also. Leaning on his great sword, he looks around him and
sees nothing but carnage. Must have felt great! The Reiksguard charged both the
swarms and the Beast Herd, killing them outright
and almost overrunning into the
Chaos Trolls further away, who hadn't done
nothing but stick their fingers up their nooses. Yuk! Philippe-Maurice was able
to keep his men from running further and turns his men to guard the rear of the
knights that are fighting the undead. As I myself was preparing myself to divert
the attention of the Giant, I heard a loud, whistling sound. The crew of the
Great Canon had spotted the threat of the Giant, had turned their big gun and
fired. The monster turned his head towards the sound and got the canon
ball rights on his nose, knocking him of his feet. Excellent shot! The Knights
Errant and the Grail Knights return towards the center of the battle
field searching for new foes.
The stupid Trolls got in contact with
Peter von Stuyvesant's
unit. Vomiting a erosive fluid they killed 2 knights. Peter and one of his men
were able to wound all three creatures but they regenerated these wounds.
Nevertheless, the trolls run away but are retrieved by the Reiksguard men. One
of the Tuskgor Chariots charges the Knights of the Twin Tailed Orb in the flank.
No need to panic however as they hold and still even win the combat. The Tuskgor
chariot, knowing it is ineffective turns tail. The Knights Errant kill 3
warriors that were just raised by a Liche Priest.
The Knights Errant charge one of the Tuskgor Chariots, destroying it completely. Another chariot is shot to tooth picks by the Great Canon with a shot dead on. The chariot must have stood in a pool of mud because I never saw the bounce of the canon ball. Such a marksmanship... My other unit of Errants was able to kill all remaining warriors while the knights of the Inner Circle killed the Tomb Prince. Another curse was invoked, this time on the Empire... but with no immediate effect.
Only facing one more Tomb Guard the Inner Circle of the Twin Tailed Orb readied themselves to finish business. As they saw an incoming Tuskgor chariot they panicked and ran away. The chariot failed its charge. The Hierophant now completely in the open blasted the wizard Kent Rothmans away. What a foolish loss...The remaining Liche Priest and the Tomb Guard joined up into a new 'unit'.
With the Grail Knights destroying the Tuskgor Chariot, The Questing Knights finishing the remaining Centigors and the Knights of the Inner Circle rallying nothing could withhold us from victory. The realms of Men had won the battle. Our foes were massacred.
End:
It was Peter von Stuyvesant that helped me up his horse to return to the castle. This victory had to be celebrated with an even larger banquet than that of the Wedding Party. Wine, Beer and food were consumed in huge numbers. Nobody cared anymore about the uttered curses of both Tomb Prince and King. No harm could come to us, until... my son Philippe-Maurice suddenly got up, took hold of his throat while coughing loudly and fell down... Dead! He had choked on a chicken bone. Was this the infamous Curse of the Tomb Kings?"
