Maelzch's Mad Medley

[cunningmatt]

Alright, some of us like not having talent!

[Meals]

If I was gonna be a really anal-retentive prat  , I'd say, personally, I think going to black with flames gets a bit too dark, I only go up to a Redgore/black mix with my flames, but otherwise it looks the goods mate. Love the models.

[maelzch]

In the dense mist that had abruptly settled onto the jungle, Kramer von Streck had lost all bearings of where he was an how far away the rest of the warband were. Although the master of the hounds had managed to keep his loyal dog pack nearby. He lit his torch as he began to shout the names of the other members of the warband. A shadowy shape, too small to be human moved through the mist on the edge of his vision. "Adge! Over here!" Kramer yelled, assuming the shape was the halfling scout. Kramer made his way towards the shape, with one of the dogs bounding ahead.
A short yelp sounded from the foliage where the dog had just gone. Kramer whistled to the rest of the dogs to stay nearby. The shape emerged from the gloom towards them, it was one of the fell rat-kin, with fresh blood around its mouth. This creature looked much scrawnier than the usual ratmen they had seen, if the word 'usual' could be used to describe such fell abominations!
Kramer was about to order the dogs to attack the creature when it stumbled and looked down at the crossbow bolt that seemed to have grown from it's leg. The ratman turned and fled as the plants parted and Lothar and Spider stepped out, looking exhausted after trekking through the jungle. "We'd best find the others and return to camp, worse things than ratmen are abroad this day"

[maelzch]

As the members of the warband made their way back through the jungle, they found Loeb Papst, the old warrior priest, lying at the side of a path deep in the throes of a fever. Spider knelt next to the priest "what happened Loeb, what has happened?"
"The rats" coughed Loeb "the orbs, the gas..." His voice trailed off as he blacked out. The party picked up the priest and continued back to their camp.

As soon as they got back to the camp, Adge the halfling, who had already made his way back took a look over Loeb "Oi've seen this 'ere trauma afore. 'Tis gas poisoning, we should be able to find plants and such nearby which may bring him around"

With that the warband spread out into the nearby jungle to seek the things Adge had advised of. The halfling had said that a lot of the ingredients could either be found growing on or nearby the large ruined temple. As the warband clambered over the temple, some Dwarven warriors emerged from the entrance and engaged the warband. Even Lothar Faust, the marksman, found himself fighting off one of the stout warriors, who he managed to avoid when the dwarf lost footing and slipped down a few steps of the temple.

As the warband was fighting against the Dwarfs around the temple, a rain of crossbow bolts made both warbands hesitate and duck for cover. As both sides warily looked to where the bolts came from, Kramer sprinted back through the foliage with his dog pack towards the rest of the warband, yelling "it's Druchii slavers, they're coming! I've got the plants that Adge needed, let's go!"
Spider, looked up, and yelled to the warband "you heard him, let's go, retreat!". Despite him overstepping his place within the warband, none wanted to argue with slavers nearby and they headed back to the camp.

[maelzch]

After a couple of days, the warband had all rested and tended to their wounds. Loeb the old priest was back to wandering around the camp conversing with all of the warband, as though he had never encountered the vile gas weapons of the ratmen.
Adge and Kramer had just arrived back to the camp from a scouting foray and were reporting to Maelzch Traugott, who seemed to be in a more lucid frame of mind than the past few days. "It would appear the ratmen who poisoned Loeb are advancing towards a mysterious tower in the valley beyond that ridge, and Adge swears that he heard the shouts of the dark-hearted Druchii nearby, though I can't imagine what brings those villains here." Kramer explained

Before any of the other members of the warband could respond, without looking up from the fire, Spider announced "We should march against them, the rat-kin cannot be allowed to attain what they seek, they should also be made to pay for the assault on Loeb!"

Maelzch looked hesitantly to Loeb, as Spider had been becoming more outspoken since his discovery of an enchanted dagger. This situation was made more tense due to Bob and his flagellants now treating the Spider with a great deal of reverence. "We fight!" ordered Maelzch, and the warband broke camp.

When they made their way over the ridge, the ratmen and Druchii could be clearly seen advancing through the foliage. As Loeb started to detail a plan of attack to the warband, a booming bestial roar arose from the nearby ruins and a bipedal beast lumbered towards a broken archway. Loeb yelled for the warband to be on their guard, as he had heard tales on these Kroxigor from the traders in Skeggi, that what the beasts lacked in intellect, they made up for with brute strength. However, Spider, Bob and Maelzch all disregarded Loeb's advice and ran towards the beast. The warrior priest glanced around to ensure no other beasts were nearby and then charged after them, reciting prayers of smiting.

His words stuck in his throat when, mid sprint, the archway of the ruins shimmered and Spider disappeared! Bob roared with fury at the vanishing and leapt through the archway after him. Nothing happened a Bob flew into combat with the beast, tearing chunks from it's hide. Maelzch's hammer inneffectually bounced from it's hide and then as abruptly as the fight started, Loeb crushed the beast's skull with his great hammer. The warband regrouped and continued to advance towards the Skaven, nobody mentioning the shock disappearance of Spider Helmgard, the young farm boy. The bitter fight for vengeance against the ratmen had begun.

[maelzch]

Meanwhile, Spider found himself tumbling through a mysterious realm. Although he felt as though he was in a long corridor, the walls were mounted with tapestries with moving images depicting past and future events. In one he saw a man resembling Sigmar fighting a tide of daemons, the he saw a crazed flagellant locked in combat on the prow of a ship. He looked to the other wall and saw a vision of the whole jungle in flames with a malevolent creature laughing atop a temple, this vision faded to one of a man with blond hair and a dwarf with a crest of orange hair slaying a dragon. The corridor moved around him without him having to walk, as it moved he saw further visions of what appeared to be a giant frog blasting skaven with magical bolts. Then he saw on vision that felt familiar to him, it looked like two flagellants, a man in armour and a fourth man with a glowing aura all in midair leaping from a temple towards a stegadon. When he looked closer at the fourth man,  he gasped and tried to move away, for it was a depiction of himself!

Unable to fully comprehend why there was an image of him amongst these scenes of legendary battles and heroes, he willed himself to move down the corridor. The corridor gradually faded like mist to reveal he was stood in a dark circular room, which was only faintly lit by a glowing plaque atop a pedestal in the centre. Without any comprehension of his actions, Spider picked up this glowing artefact. The room instantly melted away around him and he found himself plunging through the same corridor as before, although this time he found daylight at the end.

A quick glance around told him that he was atop the tower in the center of the valley which they had seen the rat-men advancing on. He saw Loeb and the others looking up at him in shock and noticed the skaven advancing through the nearby trees. He point in the direction of the ratmen and yelled "For Sigmar!"  However, the shout was not just heard by his allies and a well aimed stone caught him on the head and he tripped back into the portal again, losing his grip on the glowing plaque.

Loeb had just crushed another rat the size of one of Kramer's dogs when. Sudden flash of light at the top of the tower distracted him. He looked up to see Spider had reappeared at the top of the tower and was bathed in a bright golden light. It seemed that Spider looked straight at Loeb, yelled "for Sigmar!" And then disappeared again. Loeb shook his head in disbelief, just when he thought he'd figured out the odd farm boy, this apparent miracle happened!

Bob, the crazed leader of the flagellants had also seen this bizarre occurrence and he charged towards a ratman as it emerged from the trees bellowing "Sigmar walks amongst us! He died and returned to us! Witness the light of his return and pray! Foes of Sigmar be warned, your days are numbered!"
Loeb followed after Bob and the rest of the warband, muttering under his breath, "this could prove problematic..."

[maelzch]

Following the odd appearance of Spider atop the tower, the ratmen had seemed un-nerved and had seemed to melt back into the jungle. Loeb and the warband pushed through the trees after them and soon found themselves on the opposite side of the valley. Loeb paused and called back to the marksman, "Lothar, can you see where the rat-spawn went?"
"It looks like they are engaged against the Druchii slavers, that cannot end well for anyone." replied Lothar.
Maelzch began issuing orders to the warband, "We should return to camp in case Spider has somehow made his way back there. Kramer, take your hounds and search the area near where Spider disappeared, but beware the fetid rat-men!"

The warband had been at the camp for the hot, humid afternoon when Kramer returned to camp and issued his report to Loeb and Maelzch. "We found no sign of the young lad, so we scouted out the valley further in the direction that the ratmen came from, there's all manner of mysterious temples and structures around the area. On top of one temple was a doorway that shimmered and seemed to lead nowhere. I dared not go through it."

"Let us go and investigate this doorway, it may be linked to the increasing reports of ratmen in the area" stated Maelzch, trying to give warband something to do to take their minds off of the disappearance of Spider.

[maelzch]

When they reached the area that Kramer described, they all faltered as one and fell silent, for at the top of the temple indicated by Kramer, they saw Spider sat on the floor, as though he was patiently waiting for them. They all ran to him, and Loeb was the first to speak "What . . . How are you here? You vanished . . ." Stammered the usually quite eloquent warrior priest.

Spider stood and calmly responded "I saw a vision that you would be here, so I waited. I now understand our purpose in all of this. Man holds the balance in hi hands, a seemingly small action could end races and destroy lands but a war could fade into time unnoticed."
"I don't understand, you're not making any sense." pressed Loeb.
"We change things here, seemingly random occurrences are not, and sometimes the most certain things may change to surprise you! It will become clear, I cannot explain further." Spider cryptically replied.
"Heed his word, for he is the light against the dark of Chaos!" yelled Bob, the crazed leader of the flagellants.

As if in response to the utterance of the name of the dark powers, a mighty roar sounded that shook rocks loose from the side of the temple. Spider looked towards another nearby ruined temple and pointed. The warband turned to see the terrifying form of a massive thunder-lizard within.
"The skaven will try to steal the treasures from the creature's lair, they are collecting them so their masters can achieve some nefarious scheme. I have seen where this leads an we cannot allow this."

When he finished saying this, Spider spinted down the steps of the temple towards the thunder-lizard, with Bob and his flagellants on his heels. Loeb turned to Maelzch, who seemed to still be very coherent after the surprising recent events, and he said "I will follow Spider to ensure no harm befalls him; you arrange the rest to covverus and root out where the ratmen are." Loeb turned and jogged after the mysterious farm boy.

Acting of Maelzch's orders, Lothar the marksman and Adge the halfling took up protected firing positions on the temple and Kramer swept around the side with his dog pack, searching for any sign of the ratmen.

Maelzch was alerted to the presence of the Skaven when a yell and barking sounded from the nearby trees, above which rose a familiar looking bilious green could. Lother pointed to a nearby ruined stone building, "There! The rat-things are hiding there, I can see their rotten green robes, the look like those we have fought before."
"As Spider said, they cannot be allowed to gain the treasures. We must distract them by any means."
Maelzch turned and ran down the steps of the temple, waving his arms and yelling curses at the skaven. His 'plan' clearly worked, for he was greeted by a hail of gas globes from the ratmen. Maelzch ducked into cover at the side of the steps, holding a rag across his face and coughing violently from the fumes.

Spider and the flagellants charged headlong into the massive scaly flank of the carnosaur, yelling Sigmarite warcries. Their weapons seemed mostly ineffectual until one of the flagellants whirled into it, scoring large wounds above it's forearms. The creature retaliated violently, throwing them against a pillar with a thud, knocking another flagellant out with it's tail. The beast hesitated for a second as it turned to face Spider, who was stood in front of it. It then shook its head, roared and slashed Spider across the chest with it's powerful front claws. The farm boy slumped to the floor, blood streaming from the wound. The thunder-lizard leant towards the boy, opening its jaws as if to eat him. Suddenly, Bob let out a frenzied roar "For Sigmaarrr!" as he leapt onto the beast's back, slashing it wildly with his hooks and chains.

Loeb became aware that Bob was no longer the carnosaur's only attacker, he could see more of the vile ratmen on the other side of it, although these ones were in purple robes. Without fully understanding why, Loeb charged towards the beast, but before he could even strike it once, it fell under a hail of blows from Bob and a crazed looking ratman. Without hesitation, these two looked up and charged each other, trading blows at an impressive rate.

Loeb shook his head, forcing out the visions of bloodshed and slaughter that crowded his mind. He called to the remaining members of the warband "This place is tainted by the dark gods, we must leave, I can see nothing of purpose here. We must protect Spider and get him away safely, his life is at stake."

These words seemed to give even the battle-crazed flagallants a moment of clarity, and they all fell back towards Spider's limp form. Before any could stop to help the peasant boy, the strange purple robed ratmen swarmed the ruins, chittering madly.
"Go! Save the boy, he is the key to this." yelled Loeb, as he pressed the Skaven back single handedly, his Sigmarite chanting pushing him to greater levels of strength. The rest of the warband looked on reluctantly as they picked up Spider. As they moved the boy he faintly murmured a few words, "do not . . . do not fear, I know Loeb will not die this day . . ." the warband heeded Spider's words without question and made their back towards the nearby temple to seek cover.

[maelzch]

Loeb's breathing came to him in ragged gasps as he made his way through the jungle. After the others had all gotten Spider to safety, the two apparently different tribes of skaven had begun to bicker and fight with each other, mostly ignoring him. Loeb had dealt with the two rats near him, grabbed some of the loot from the carnosaur's lair and bolted into the jungle. It was only when he paused for breath that he heard someone sprinting through the undergrowth behind him. He stopped and turned to face the oncoming threat as a Skaven in rotten robes burst from the trees.  "You take-snatch our precious loot" rattled the ratman in crude, broken Reikspiel, "I must have-take it for the decaying master-lords." The skaven drew a long, thin blade and advanced on Loeb.

The warrior priest put the loot at his feet and hefted his hammer, muttering to himself "I'm getting too old for this shit." He waited until the ratman drew nearer, took one step forwards and swung the hammer at the creature's head. It tried to move out of the way, but was not quick enough and took the blow on it's temple, slumping to the ground. Seizing his opportunity, Loeb grabbed the loot and headed back towards the camp, hoping that the others had made it back safely.

[maelzch]

After Loeb arrived back at the camp, the warband had all focussed on Spider and his recovery. The farm boy had been lain on an improvised bed and his grievous chest wounds had been cleaned and bandaged. He had not yet truly awoken from his fevered dreams since the carnosaur had slashed him, although the warband had heard him ranting occasionally about giant rat-daemons, secret cabals, rising darkness and the walking dead. None of the fragmented cries made any real sense, but Loeb feared that they alluded to things Spider had been so enigmatic about previously.

The warband had been inactive for a period of some days, their sense of purpose seemingly lost with Spider now standing in Morr's gates. The pervasive mood was broken when Kramer and his hounds returned from a foraging mission, panting and breathless, "Ware the ratmen," he gasped "they are moving this way, with what seems like a sense of purpose."
As if to punctuate this latest news, a massive thunderclap roared through the valley and a torrential downpour suddenly started. Loeb rose "This omen does not bode well, they come to assault our camp, they must have tracked us here. We must find somewhere new, it is no longer safe here."