StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I paused to check my reflection in the mirror hanging in the antechamber. My hair is Honey-blond cut short in front and pulled back into a short braid with not a strand out of place. Clean shaven face below, moderately good looking with a faint red mark on the left cheek from an old burn. Average build, nothing extraordinary, although in better shape than most. The blue silk great coat with gold buttons was spotless as were the white trousers. Save for the black wool vest, again with gold buttons, and the white silk shirt underneath. The black boots were a little scuffed, but I could live with that.

The other details were also important. A double barreled, top over bottom, military pistol was tucked into the right side of my sash, the wavy cobalt patterns of the serrec steel barrels covered by the brass cowling of a rune plate with blue-white glowing sigils. The accumulator that powered the mechinkal weapon slid into butt of the pistol. On my left was a scabbarded rapier, also mechankal. The tools of my profession, that proclaimed me a man who could and would deal with violence if needed. Which was why I was here.

The majordomo returned. He was a small, grey man who saw everything. His suit was conservative and plain, but well tailored. I had caught the bulge of a pistol in one pocket, something others probably missed. I nodded in acknowledgement. "My master will see you know," he said. That was a little surprising. I had expected him to keep me waiting for quite a bit longer.

I followed him into Godwin Dryden's salon. The merchant prince was standing with his back to me, gazing out the window. The room was as lushly appointed as one would expect from a man who had seized wealth and power on his own merits and had developed taste and lost the need to impress his visitors. It was the kind of thing I would do if I had money to burn.

He turned towards me. He was wearing cream and sky-blue silk and while his clothes were perfect he appeared less than immaculate. It was clear he hadn't shaved in several days and his prematurely white hair was a little dishevelled. He looked a lot older than his forty odd years. "Master Talbot I presume?" he said in a gravelly voice.

"That is correct sir," I said with a bow.

"The railroad company spoke highly of your band. I have need of men of your talents."

Well, this wasn't a surprise. His men hadn't come for me because he suddenly felt the need to converse with mercenary adventurers. "Thank you sir. How can my company be of service?"

"Company? There are what, half a dozen of you? Isn't company a little grandiose for so few men?"

"If you say so sir," I said politely, "but you would be hard pressed to get our results with ten times as many men."

He nodded. He thought I was exaggerating, but he thought we could do the job. "If I may be so bold sir, what do you need from us?"

"A week ago, my niece failed to arrive as scheduled. Two days latter foresters found the remains of her party. They had been overcome by bandits. My niece was not among the dead."

I suppressed a wince. The situation northeast at Corvis and the border tensions had drawn resources away from other duties, like keeping down the bandits. The decline in enforcement and the addition of deserters from all sides swelling their ranks combined to make them even more of a menace than usual. the My and mine had earned good coin hunting them down and burning them out. "You want us to find the bandits and recover your niece?"

"Yes," he said. "And I want those slime dead." His voice was bleak and unyielding. I would have felt pity for the bandits, except I was pretty sure they deserved everything we were going to give them and more.

"Five days," I said. "It will take some time to track them down. And they may have committed outrages against your niece."

"I know. I want her back alive. And avenged. This will require finesse."

"We can do finesse," I replied and that was true. "She will need all the emotional support you can give her when we return her." If they hadn't already raped her to death.

"I will see to my niece's health. Just bring her back."

"There is the matter of price," I said.

He motioned his majordomo forward. He had a contract with him. I read it. The terms for wiping out the bandits were good. The payment on return of his niece alive were very generous indeed. There weren't any weasel terms. So much for haggling. I signed both copies and handed one back to the majordomo.

"Things will go better if I can speak with the men who found the ambush site and the lawmen who patrol the area."

"We have both of the foresters on a short term retainer," said the majordomo. "The local officials are useless, but we have a senior man who is knowledgeable in these matters. They will contact you at your lodgings and put themselves at your disposal."

"Excellent," I said. "I should get going. The sooner the better." Dryden nodded in acknowledgement and the majordomo showed me out the door.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The Black Rooster is a nice enough place. As a mining town not too far off the main railway lines it receives a fair amount of traffic, transients, and hard cases. It was clear they hadn't dealt with the likes of us before.

Shay tipped her tricorn hat at me when I entered the tap room. It was a good thing we were paying well, because most of the rest of the custom had left. I acknowledged Shay with a brief nod. She slid towards me.

Shay was wearing a reinforced greatcoat over dark shirt and trousers. Her brown hair was pulled back in a braid and her magelock pistol was holstered in her belt. Shay was easy on the eyes, but that wasn't the thing that seized your attention. She had a presence about her, like a caged lightning bolt. "How did it go?" she asked.

"Good," I said. "Keep the Evil Twins out of trouble?"

"Yeah," she replied and hooked a thumb towards the back. Black cloak and black coat were playing chess. Sadko's iron shod staff was resting against the wall beside him. They both pretended not to pay any attention to me. Fine.

Garthek Slaughterborn was at the table next to them. The three fingered trollkin was six and half feet tall and very, very broad. He had grey-green skin with blueish spots, muscles like steel cables, and spiky bristles along the his neck and the back of his head. He was currently drowning a whole chicken by the method of eating the chicken and then pouring the contents of the flagon into his frog like mouth. Trollkin didn't heal quite as fast as their larger and more barbaric cousins, which meant that they were merely voracious eaters instead of being constantly hungry. He didn't look up. He was patient. Everything would come in time. The warrior was as solid as the sacred stones of his kriel.

"And Tak?"

"Out somewhere," she replied. "Probably scavenging junk." As usual. Unlike the Evil Twins, the gobber didn't usually get into trouble. Of course, when he did it was usually way out of his league. The Evil Twins, on the other hand, tended to handle their trouble. Messily. Which was why it was best to prevent them from getting into trouble in the first place.

"Alright," I said. "We've got business and we're on the clock," I said. "So someone round up Tak and let's get down to it."

It didn't take Shay long to bring Tak back. Even with the gobber's camouflage abilities the town was only so big and that meant there was only so long one could hide from sharp eyed Shay. One of the foresters showed up just after she left and we waited until she got back, which wasn't long.

Tak hopped up on a table and stared at the taciturn forester. "Well well, aren't we going to get down to business?" he squeaked. The gobber was wearing overalls and an equipment harness over his grey-green goblin skin. "Let's get down to businesseseses."

Ardin (not his real name, whatever that happened to be) smiled. The Evil Twin wore dark, practical, and non flashy clothing whenever possible. I'm not really sure why they got along so well, but they did. Maybe it was the hatred of Menoth, which both had in abundance. Ardin was a little on the tall side, clean shaven, with dark, glittering eyes and short cut black hair when he bothered about it. He was getting a little shaggy now, but when it started being a nuisance it would get the scissors. "So, what's the deal?"

"Maybe twelve miles from here," the forester said. He was a taciturn and ugly man with a scraggly beard and a hooked nose. I didn't trust him at all. I could tell Ardin didn't either, but Ardin didn't even trust Sadko or Shay and he was sleeping with Shay occasionally(Morrow only knows what she sees in him). Ardin's eyes flickered from the forester back to me. I could tell damn well what he was asking.

I nodded slightly. "Let's go view the site," I said. The forester grumbled, but complied. Shay and Tak got the cart ready and we suited up to go out of town. It was dark by now, but Tak could see in the dark and we weren't going to be going that fast.

The forester got even more nervous when he saw Garthek come out. Slaughterborn was steel plate armour and carrying the a nasty looking Caspian blade. The smooth ended, broad bladed cleaving weapon was far too heavy for my taste, but I wasn't a trollkin who could swing it like a willow switch. Nasty barbs protruded from the sides and the length of the blade was marked with runes although mechanikal wasn't powered at the moment. The trollkin sat right down beside the forester. He wasn't at all happy.

The Evil Twins slid in back behind them. Sadko was wearing his hauberk of hardened leather and bronze scales, a magical relic from ancient times. The only weapon of note the black clad carried was his staff but that was more than enough. Ardin muttered the spell and then began to engage the forester in coversation.

He steered it pretty quickly to the ambush and how a man has to do what he has to do to get by. Pretty soon the forester was spilling his guts on how he got paid to tip off the bandits. It was more pitiful than loathsome.

A little more prodding from Ardin got the name of his bandit contact and their lair. It was near the ruin of an old Orgoth keep, long abandoned and considered haunted. I knew what he was talking about. I had seen it on the ride in when we were pulling train guard duty. It was a good place for bandits to hunker down, if they feared lingering Orgoth magics less than the law.

We stopped for Garthek to relieve himself and Shay approached me. "What's the plan Kade?"

"We don't need a tracker anymore," I said. "And we can't sneak in with him."

She nodded. "He's says they're more than a hundred of them."

"Yeah, that could be real bad. And guns too." Slaughterborn came back towards the wagon and changed course, heading to the back where me and Shay were talking. The Evil Twins and Tak could take care of the bandit if he got jumpy.

"Whatta we gonna do with him Kade?" said Garthek. He jerked his broad thumb across his throat. Ardin's spell wouldn't last forever and then the bandit would remember who he spilled the beans to and then things would get very messed up.

"Yeah," I said. I headed back towards the wagon. Ardin's gaze met mine.

"Hold on for just a second buddy," he said smiling. The wizard jumped off the wagon and came to me.

"He have anything valuable left to tell?" I asked.

"No," said Ardin. "They plan to ransom her, but they might keep her anyway. I doubt their hospitality is very pleasant." Our wizard is a master of understatement when he chooses to be.

"So he's just a liability now?" I ask.

He nodded. And then he turns around, waves to his new buddy and Sadko. And then he drops his arm.

Sadko is a big man, a literal Khadaran bear, beard and all. He's almost as tall as Garthek and almost as broad as well and the trollkin is a squat six-six. Sadko reaches over and breaks the forester's neck like he's done it a hundred times before. Maybe he has. Killing doesn't faze the black clad.

Tak stripped him of anything interesting and Garthek stuffed his corpse in the brush. He came back a few minutes later.

"What's the plan?" Shay asked. A trick of the light made the scar on the left side of her face, along jawline, stand out. She was self conscious about that scar. I don't know the story behind it, but I can guess a few of the details and they aren't pleasant.

I pictured the ruined keep, perched on the side of a mountain and overlooking the road. It wasn't that far from the railroad, but the railroad would hire mercenaries to wipe out any bandits so they hit the road instead. Which was funny in a way because particularly stupid bandits had done just that and we had been hired to put them down. There was plenty of forest cover for them to hide in and a great vantage point for spotting prey.

I thought about it and a plan began to come together. "We save the princess and then we kill them all."

"I'm game," she replied.

Yay! An Iron Kingdoms story; I've been waiting for one.

We got the wagon off the road and into a copse of trees. "So," said Ardin, "what's the plan?"

"We sneak up there," I said, "and Sadko has his animal friends go inside and locate the prize and spy out the area. If their guard isn't too heavy, Sadko and Tak take them out and spring her while we play rear guard."

"What about the War God?" asked Shay.

"Too noticeable. I'll fill him up and fire up his boilers and leave him here. That way he'll be ready to go if we need him as we fall back."

Ardin nodded. Sadko grimaced in disgust. Well, too bad for him. He was going to have to bear it. "Any problems?"

Everyone shook their head in the negative. "Okay, we're burning darkness. Let's move."

We hiked up the side of the mountain, winding our way through the trees on our way to the keep. It took us maybe an hour to get there. I didn't check my watch. The night still held.

There wasn't much left of the keep. The tumbledown remains a fallen wall encircled the roofless shell of a the ruined keep. Two crude log buildings flanked it, structures of far more recent construction. I regarded them from a distance and turned to Sadko. "This part falls to you."

The druid nodded and left us, vanishing into the dark woods. It was a while before we saw him again, but that wasn't unusual. We waited, patiently. Eventually he returned.

"She's in the keep. The third story floor is intact, although the walls are a shell. She's sharing the bed with one of the men. More than a score of them in the keep and the outbuildings are full of bunks. A man and a ogrun on watch."

That sucked. Too many bandits and a guard who was too big for Tak to overpower. "I have a spell that might help," said Ardin. "Take care of one."

I looked over at Tak. "Yes yes, the other yes yes," he replied.

In gave the nod and Ardin crept forward. I had changed out of my fancy suit into clothes I didn't mind getting dirty and a great coat with mail and boiled leather armour inserts. I wasn't too bad at sneaking, but Ardin was damn good.

He was an amateur compared to the gobber. He stripped down to expose his chameleonic skin, slid ahead, and vanished. I switched my attention to the bandits.

I couldn't make out much from here, although the bigger one must have been the ogrun. They were silhouettes, nothing more. I knew it was in the late hours of the night and even if sober, the bandits would be tired. They wouldn't be expecting to be attacked while camping out on a haunted ruin.

They were wrong. Tak slid up to the wall and over and then climbed the keep. He gently lowered a gossamer noose over the head of the human bandit, a man scarred by the pox and carrying a crossbow as well as a hatchet and many knives. The noose dropped and tightened. The bandit kicked and struggled.

As Tak struck, so did Ardin. His spell had limited range, but it packed a hell of a punch. The ogrun fell in convulsions. The wizard darted forward and stabbed the garroted bandit in the heart. Blood spilled onto the ground and Ardin turned to the ogrun and slit his throat. That's our wizard, as bloody minded and vicious as the Dark Twin herself.

Maybe that's why he got along so well with Sadko. The black clad rose up from hiding and advanced to join up with his Twin. Shay crept forward too. Well, that was my signal. I moved up to join them.

Garthek hung back. Sneakiness was not the trollkin's strength, but he would hold open our escape route against every infernal in Uncaen if need be. Shay and the Evil Twins crept inside. Despite their bloodymindedness the Evil Twins would follow through. Treachery wasn't in Sadko's nature and Ardin was reliable in a completely horribly way.

The bandits in the ruined keep were sleeping along the side of the hall, dead to the world. There was a couple of dogs inside that might have made a racket if we didn't have Sadko, but we did and they continued to loaf as Shay and the evil twins went upstairs. We could have started slitting the bandit's throats, but the dogs would have made a fuss and all hell would break loose. With magic, as all things, there are limits.

Upstairs was another room full of sleeping bandits and another room with a closed door. Sadko tested it. Locked. A whispered spell from Ardin and the bar jumped off the door and they made their way inside the room.

Inside there big canopied bed piled high with furs and a loudly snoring bandit. A frightened girl hand her hands tied to the headboard and her legs to one of the poles. Shay moved forward and put a gloved hand over the girl's mouth. Her dagger flashed as she cut the bonds around her wrists.

Something caused the bandit chief to wake. He was a big, barrel chested man. Sadko pounced on him, a hand on his mouth. He thrashed and fought and bit. Shay took time out from freeing the girl to stick him in between the ribs just below the armpit. Hot blood splashed over the girl. Shay stabbed him again and again. His struggles grew weaker.

"Made your big score," she hissed into the ear of the dying man. "Was it as good as you dreamed?" She slid the blade into his gut and twisted. Shay played rough. "Was it everything you wanted? Are you happy?" she snarled.

His arms had gone limp by then. Sadko settled the matter by snapping his neck. Yes, he does do that a lot. It works.

"Get her free and let's move," said Ardin. "That racket could have woken someone up." You don't need the intellect of a master wizard to figure out that being in close quarters with a several dozen bandits was bad business (yes, Sadko's estimate was low).

"We're here to rescue you," Shay hissed in the girl's ear and then cut her feet free. Shay propped her up with one hand and drew her magelock with the other. The girl was naked and splattered with blood, but chivalry could wait. They rushed down the stairs. As one of the bandits on the top floor moaned and rubbed his eyes.

The dogs were agitated as they came down the stairs. They could smell the blood and the wrongness. They began to bark. It's never easy.

They ran for the exit. Someone snagged the girl as they were pulling her towards the doorway. Shay blew his brains out and that, of course, woke everyone up.

Sadko ignited his staff and caused it to burn with blue-white flames. He spun it around. Bandits jerked back involuntarily. Shay got the girl out the door and Ardin squeezed through just behind her. He was shouting a spell. So much for subtlety. I had my double barrel out. Blood was going to spill.

A dull roar came from the keep and light flashed in the windows as Ardin's fireball detonated inside. Sadko held the door with his blazing staff while Shay hustled the barefooted girl over the rocky ground towards a gap in the wall. Ardin followed in their wake, rear guard and fire support for the rest of us. Now the plan would be to fall back. I muttered a spell to protect me from projectiles. It was going to get hairy real quick.

They came out of the log houses, half dressed but armed. A bullet just missed me and my spell caused a crossbow bolt to ricochet away inches from my chest. I took careful aim and shot the bandit with the gun. I hit him in the chest, but he didn't go down so I shot him again. He fell.

As for the first couple coming out of the other building, Tak was on it. He pulled a grenade from his harness and tossed it. No one recognized it in the dark. It went off with a loud crump. It's not the explosion of a grenade that you have to worry about, its the scrap iron casing breaking off into sharp bits and going through your tender flesh at very high speeds. One bandit was bleeding for a bunch of apparently minor wounds, another was clutching his eyes and screaming and a third was on the ground clutching his gut.

Several more shots rang out and Sadko staggered back, blood streaming from a wound on his left arm and right leg. Bandits continued to stream out of all three buildings. Yeah, this was going really well.

Hmm, nice. Do you have any other Iron Kingdom fics anywhere? I tried a search but that didnt turn anything up.

Pretty nice, any plans for a larger scale story thats really specific to the setting (Rather than a small scale one)?

Xon wrote:Hmm, nice. Do you have any other Iron Kingdom fics anywhere? I tried a search but that didnt turn anything up.

I'm pretty sure this is the first.

This is his first IronKingdom fic.

And I hope he's got Chapter 3 up and ready, because he knows how I feel about chillhangers

Lead in to the gaming you're planning?

Stormbringer wrote:Lead in to the gaming you're planning?

No, just an idea floating in my brain. There's going to be a delay due to brutal modem death. I'm posting from a friend's house at the moment and will hopefully be back up to speed in the next few days.

Imperial Overlord wrote:

Stormbringer wrote:Lead in to the gaming you're planning?

No, just an idea floating in my brain. There's going to be a delay due to brutal modem death. I'm posting from a friend's house at the moment and will hopefully be back up to speed in the next few days.

Ouch, my condolences on the modem.

I have temporary net linkage so . . . .



It was getting really messy now. Sadko extended his hands and sent a stroke of lightning flashing into the interior of the keep. He staggered back towards Shay and Garthek, his face a mask of blood. Shay was casting magic through her gun, pumping bolts of orange fire into bandit who fell back burning. Tak had disappeared, probably heading back to our lines. I fell back too, uttering a spell that sent violet bolts of light to strike one of the half scene bandits. Bullets and bolts flew around me and several more were deflected away. My spell wasn't going to last much longer.

Garthek and Ardin held the line as we fell back. Garthek is a horrible shot, he doesn't even bother to pack a gun. He does, however, have very good armour which can even withstand gun fire and he also has a mechanikal sword. Runes along the battleblade were glowing a soft cyan, a sure sign that he had activated the weapons. Electricity crackled along the weapon's length. He pointed it in the direction where several shots had come from and unleashed the weapon's fury. Lightning shot from the blade and illuminated the night for split second. After images danced in my eyes but I think he hit a couple of people.

Ardin had his own spell protections. Hell, I learned the bullet blocking spell from him. In true Evil Twin fashion he went offensive with a vengeance. Blue-white flames rained down the area in front of the keep. I saw a half-dozen men set alight and they ran screaming out of the deadly hail. The storm died down, but lightning arced from his finger tips towards a cluster of gunshots. Garthek's blade unleashed another blast. I couldn't see if we hit anything, but both log houses were on fire now.

Bolts of fire flew from the darkness and slammed into Garthek. The trollkin staggered back, smoke coming from the joints of his armour. I searched the darkness frantically, trying to find the enemy witch. Blue-white flames blossomed among the bandits and there were more screams. Darts of crimson light flew through the night to splatter harmlessly off Ardin's spell defences. Silvers of silver light flashed from his fingers and flew back into the darkness. "The witch is done!" he shouted. Thank Morrow.

Ardin blocked the path of any advance with a wall of violet fire set in front of the keep's ruined wall. Garthek limped towards me. I can't see that well in the dark, but the trollkin wore good armour and he was absurdley tough. He could still walk and that was enough. "Head back," I told him. His helmet bobbed in response.

A pillar fire roared down from the sky and struck somewhere inside the keep walls. Even as chewed up as he was, Sadko was still dropping the hammer on the enemy. Ardin motioned me back and I nodded in response. We were done here. For now.

Tak, Sadko, and Shay were waiting for us a little further down. Sadko was still splattered with blood, but he was steady. He had probably used healing magic to treat his wounds. Shay was using a tube of cold light to see properly and rubbing the package's feet with cure-all cream. They'd been cut up pretty badly running over the rock. Shay had given the package her coat and was saying something soft and soothing. Garthek lumbered into the circle.

Sadko came over to the trollkin and inspect his wounds. He began that eerie spell song he used to invoke his magic. "She can't run," said Shay. "Her feet are too torn up."

"I'll carry her," said Sadko. He was the strongest, baring Garthek, and wasn't wearing nearly as much armour nor was he heavily wounded.

"Alright," I said. "Let's get moving before they get their act together. And kill the lights. It makes us too damn easy to follow in the dark." Sadko picked up the girl and we hustled down the slop. We made good time, it being a hell of a lot easier going down than going up. By the time we reached the wagon we could see the first pink and orange touches of false dawn over the horizon.

Sadko put the girl in the wagon. I considered the group. Sadko had used much of his magic already and Garthek was wounded. Shay, Ardin, and I still had a good sized chunk of it left and Tak was just fine, but not much of a fighter. I came to a decision. "Their leader is dead, but they'll get their act together soon enough. We have to hit them now if we want to catch them before they leave. Sadko, Shay, and Garthek will stay behind and protect the lady. Ardin, you're coming with me and Tak. Both of you are sticking to the side lines."

"You're taking the War God," said Ardin.

"Damn straight," I said. "We'll finish this properly.

Garthek and Sadko wrestled the machine off the cart and into standing position. Tak was on hand to give me assistance. The War God is a suit of heavy steam armour, nine feet tall with twin stacks on the back for the heavy boiler. We had left the furnace lit and on low, so there was no delay in powering up, but putting on steam armour properly required both time and assistance. Tak and I had a routine down cold and we could be ready in an amount of time another might think impossible. Straps were tightened, mechanika interfaces aligned, and plates slid back into place and locked. The helmet-cowling was slammed down like a tomb door. I was ready.

I took a step. And then another. The War God was responding fully. Sluggish, compared to a man, but with long strides and a great reach that compensated for those limitations. The War God resembled a small war 'jack, an armoured humanoid construct of science and sorcery designed to crush the enemy out of existence. I flexed the War God's arms. The movements were smooth and almost effortless. Perfect.

I picked up the huge Caspian battleblade that was the War God's weapon in close quarters. It felt light weight and natural in my hand. I checked the shoulder mount. A weapon consisting of Four large bore rifle barrels, each one far too powerful for a human to use were arrayed in a diamond pattern on my right shoulder. Inside the main housing a system that was a combination of clockwork and mechinika that served to reload automatically after each barrel fired. The clock gears purred and the clockwork went as smooth as glass. "Let's finish this," I said and marched the War God up the hill.

The sun was rising as I marched War God up the slope. Long, slow strides ate up the ground. Underbrush did not slow War God, saplings did not impede him. He marched through them, relentless and untiring. Ardin and Tak followed in my wake, the gobber with a ridiculously long rifle slung over his shoulder and a firing stand in his hand. In cover he would be practically invisible and with his scoped rifle he would give us long range fire support.

Ardin had neither cover nor armour, but he did have spells to protect him as well as War God's bulk. Time is funny in battles. It can go quickly or stretch endlessly. This one wouldn't take long.

I emerged from the trees and advanced on the keep with Ardin hanging behind War God's shadow. Smoke rose from the blackened ruins of the log houses. There were several bandits on watch and they figured out what was happening pretty quickly. Shouts of alarm went out and a few gun shots came my way. Only one came close enough to bounce off my armour. Fools. They needed to wait until War God was closer so their bullets would strike full force and their miserable accuracy could actually allow hits if they expected to bring War God down. They wouldn't live to learn better

A crack from behind me told me that Tak had fired his long rifle. One of the bandits slumped backwards as more began to line up around the ruined wall. More continued to stagger out. There was perhaps a score of them fumbling with their weapons or aiming them in my direction. Not nearly enough to stand against War God. More bullets and bolts came my way. A few hit, but they did not bite through the War God's thick black hide.

Ardin had enough of passively taking fire and decided to take the offensive. He invoked a spell and in response a large rock ripped itself out of the earth in response to his will. The stone must have weighed twenty pounds and struck the ruined wall as if shot from a cannon. Dust and stone chips flew as the impact smashed a hole in the wall.

Then he launched another and this one turned a bandit's head into bone chips, blood mist, and chunks of grey matter. They were scared by now, I could here it in their shouts. I continued the advance and trained the Voice of Thunder on one of them. I fired, narrowly missing. I fired again and took a scruffy looking bandit in the shoulder. Blood jetted from the wound. That alone could have caused him to die of blood loss. I shot him in the chest and and he fell.

Ardin continued his bombardment. He was a half visible blur beneath the shroud of protective magics. I trained the Voice of Thunder on another and took off the top of his head. Ardin caught another one in the chest with a boulder and the bandit flew back. Clockwork whirled as new rounds were loaded into the Voice. I was close to the wall now. Ardin had hung back. The end was nigh.

I cleared the wall in a pair of powerful strides. Bandits scrambled away. I could see them clearly now, soot streaked and bedraggled, clothes scarcely better than rags with bit strips of cloth and ill fitting scavenged armour. One wasn't fast enough, an easy thing to be consider how long War God's stride was and how long his reach was. The oversized battleblade hit him in the back and smashed out through the front of his chest in a spray of blood. Panic ruled them now.

I gunned down another two with the Voice of Thunder, putting through and through wounds through their chests. The gears of the loader spun as I moved forward to finish the job. Another one fell as Tak put a round through his skull.

A wounded man lay moaning in front of me. I stomped on his chest with War God's left foot. Bones cracked like dry sticks and blood gushed from his mouth as I moved in for the kill on the survivors. A sword bounced off War God's chassis. I split the bandit's skull with the battleblade.

I advanced on the last few survivors. Three of them, cowering in fear, clutching to weapons that they knew would not save them. I cut the closest, a skinny blonde man barely twenty, in half. The blade continued moving, severing the arm of the bandit beside him. The third darted under my swing and bolted past me. He screamed as he was struck by jets of flame from Ardin's hands. He ran for a few seconds and then began to roll on the ground. I stepped on his skull.

There wasn't much left to do after that. There were a few wounded left, skulking in whatever cover they could find. That didn't save them from the War God. We rooted them out and finished them. Ardin sifted through their possessions to find loot worth taking and then we headed back down the hill, leaving the bodies for the crows.

The girl would recover soon enough in body, but the mind would take longer and there would always be scars. But she would heal and a had a better shot than most at a good life. Not quite the story book rescue of a lost princess, but it would have to do.

I could mention the typos... but you're having modem problems so it's understandable you're not able to doublecheck as well. So, when you get around to it.

They're leader is dead

Garthek and Sadko wrestled the machine of the cart

I stomped on his chest with War God's left chest.

Superior technology and firepower will always rule the day.

What is Iron Heart?

Sean Mulligan wrote:What is Iron Heart?

Huh? What Iron Heart are you talking about?

Iron Kingdoms is an RPG and Mini Wargaming setting from Privateer Press.

Since I don't know the background for Iron Kingdoms, why is a Black Robe (druid) considered to be a frightening thing?

LadyTevar wrote:Since I don't know the background for Iron Kingdoms, why is a Black Robe (druid) considered to be a frightening thing?

Actually, it's Black Clad. They're the human Druids that are part of The Circle. They're to be feared for the simple reason that they rarely come out of the shadows but are utterly ruthless scary people. The Circle is powerful and it's minions act like it.