The flames of the fire flickered and spat erratically. Dark figures sat huddled around the heat, the smell of cooking meat offering little comfort to the morale of those gathered there. Blackened fingers pulled back the strapping, caked in blood, that was bound around his wrist. The Black Orc stood up spat at the fire and turned his back to the flames...

The fire cast his great shadow over the prisoners they had taken from the last raid. He liked this plan, da humies would send their warriors to rescue the lord's children, and then he would have a real fight one his hands. He offered a delightfully evil smirk to the empire children, who continued to cower in a bundle beneath the tree.

suddenly the orc chef in a dirty white apron and chef hat stood up
"roast stuntie for anyone who wants it"
the black orc noticed several of the smaller orcs and grots rush to get their share first.He would have to teach them a lesson,he thought.biggest gets first pick.

After bashing a few skulls and squelching a snotling underfoot the Black Orc grabbed a Goblin by the throat,
"Give them Empire brats some water then shut them up for the night, good and tight...But dont kill em or I'll tear your inards out and you'll be breakfast!"
The frightened Goblin limped pathetically towards the children.

The goblin tossed a stolen waterskin at the children, "drink up hum......" He cut himself off as he thought he saw something move in the trees behind the huddled kids. Walking past the trees he took a look around, his eyes taking a second to adjust without the fire to illuminate the area. He didn't even have time to cry out before the arrow thunked into his green chest.

Amid the din of the orcish feast, nobody noticed the missing goblin. Smiling darkly, Morannon drew the arrow free from its already cooling corpse. This would be too easy. He would kill the sentries, grab the children and run. They were wasted as an orcish meal; let them learn the true meaning of pain as Druchii slaves, instead...

then suddenly a flying,blood coated skull launched itself through the air.Morannon spotted the skull and started running backwards as to avoid it.with a loud "THUNK!"
the skull landed directly on morannon's head the fell to his knees and gave a loud groan,dropping his bow.Amidst all the chaos round the campfire allthe orcs and grots turned around,the biggest orc shouting "Get Him!"

Before either side could move, a blinding blue light erupted from between the trees accompanied by a terrific crash of thunder. Spilling between the gnarled trunks with eardrum-bursting bellows came bounding masses of screaming Saurus Warriors, a ferocious Oldblood at their head: their toothed swords hacked down the first rank of the Orcs, dark, greenish blood spattering upwards as their unstoppable charge ploughed into the warband...

In the chaos of the moment, the Black Orc rushed to the children. Grabbed them by the hair of their heads and launched them onto his broad shoulders. Morannon slowly came round from the shock of the bloodied skull then the well aimed, hobnailed boot of the Black Orc thumped ficiously into his groin.

Screaming morranon fell to the floor. He thoughtto himself this could not get any worse, but it could.
As he lay there squirming in pain the inhabitants of the town started to pelt him with rotten veg. He could only see lizards hacking away at the orcs and then he saw a stegadon heading straight for him ......

he picked up his bow and drew back an arrow.He realised he could save his own life,or shoot the orc who was carrying the childeren.He had an Idea.He shot the left leg of the stegadon,and it blundered to the right,about to trample on the fleeing orc....

(I thought this story was supposed to be serious? What happened?)

"Stinking Lizard scum" grumbled the Black Orc, almost out of breath. A thick dirty band of metal around his head began to glow with unworldly light. Great talons lifted the Empire brats from his shoulders. Blackfist grinned, grabbed the leash from around his Wyverns neck, jumped onto the filty beasts back and rose up into the darkness.

(lets keep this story rolling)

quali-zotec aimed his giant bow at the flying monster.It was hard to aim,when you were on the back of a stegadon,he thought.beside him skinks were shooting downwards at the orcs.He launched his giant bow at the heart of the wyvern skewering it.as he saw the beast tumble odwn,he wondred,would it be enough?

Tehexi watched the wyvern taking to the skies and clicked out a string of orders to his fellow skinks, who began firing their darts at the massive winged beast. Seeing his spawning brother Quali-zotec fell the massive beast he bounded quickly over to his terradon and ordered the wing into the sky to catch the children, Loqrikai had ordered the children be saved at all costs, and who was he to argue with the will of the Old Ones.

tehexi stopped his terradon just below the falling children.the terradoon wad wide enough to catch them both,but as he did the terradon buckled under the Impact.the treeadon soared otwards the ground,tehext desperately trying to pull the terradon up.at the last moment the terradon regained control and crashed inside the stegadon howdah.

Cursing under his breath, Morannon slowly lifted himself to his feet, wiping rotten vegetables off himself whilst scanning the surrounding woods for the mystery peasants. At first, they seemed to have disappeared, until he noticed that some of the lizardmen and orcs had broken off from the fighting to enjoy a particularly grisly feast. Smiling cruelly, Morannon reached into his quiver, and drew fourth a thick, barbed arrow, the most potent of venoms dripping from its tip. Drawing back the string of his bow, he let loose, watching with satisfaction as it pierced the thinner scales of the terradon's underbelly, right below its claws. The terradon gave a pain-filled shriek, and began to flail about in midair, it's hold on the children released as it sought to pull the painful arrow free and stop the liquid pain from flowing into it from the wound.

(Five really long sentences?)

errr...you are a bit behind.the wyvern is allready dead.

Tehexi for some reason found himself inside the howdah of the stegadon that had been sent with them. Pulling himself off of the wounded terradon he watched an arrow hit the flailing terradon's back end, and the children slip off the howdah. Screaming out some quick saurian, a kroxigor below the stegadon heard it and grabbed the falling kids. Turning he walked away from the battle with the children cradled in his scaly arms.

Red eyes glowed menacingly in the shadows. Bogsh*t the Shaman watched the greenskins falling apart and could feel the waargh diminishing. With his last bit of green strength he summoned a giant green hand to carry Blackfist to him. 'Another time; we'll get the scum!'
The sourfaced Black Orc and the Shaman creeped off into the darkness.

(END OF THE INTRO, NEXT POST = 'CHAPTER ONE')

***CHAPTER ONE***

The single candle flickered in the darkness. the anxious mother sat clenching her fists, staring at the flame. The long hours of this dreadful night were endless. A tear fell down her cheek, her heart empty. Silence was all around her. How could such a day happen, what could bring such terror to her home. The Castle was silent with the absence of her lord and his men; and where were her children?

OOC: GRRRR. You posted that during the two seconds or so that I had left the post like that. I edited it about half a minute after I posted it!!! :angry: :angry: :angry:

Soon footsteps could be heard echoing through the hallways towards the room where she sat, the metallic clink of armour obvious. There was a light rapping at her door and a voice asked, "milady?"
She recognized the voice, "enter Johan."
The door opened slowly and the head of one of the high ranking knights of the blazing sun looked in, "the lord has returned milady, he asks that you meet him in the great hall".

She felt sick in her stomach. Looked at Johan for an explanation, there was none.
She followed the knight through the hallways, dimly lit. One half of herself excited hoping to see her children, the other half horrified, scared to hear any bad tidings. As the approached the brightness of the great hall there was much excitement and shouting. She saw her husband...

(Lets do our best to hold this together, nothing is forgotten and characters like Morannon and Blackfist will come back into the story as it unfolds.)

...moving about the hall, bellowing orders to the men. Lord Franz Austermann seemed even more imposing than usual, his features contorted with seething rage as he directed those soldiers with any proficiency in medecine in their efforts to heal their comrades. As he noticed his wife's presence, Franz' bearing immediately lightened, though the smile upon his face as he beheld her was a strained one.
"It is good to see you, my dear... The days of late have held little comfort for me. We were forced to defend a village from a force of vile elven corsairs, and lost the trail of the children during the battle We routed them, but at great cost... and our child is still out there...

Her face was ashen, eyes pleading, "Then Franz, PLEASE! release my sister, she can help us!"
Anger again flashed across his face, "Myriam! I cant do this for you. I love you but your sister is a Witch! an Enchantress!"
They both stared at each other wordlessly. Suddenly, from outside the Great Hall...

the echo of heavy boots and armour could be heard making their way to the hall. A pair of Knights of the Blazing Sun entered and walked over to Franz, the pair saluted and waited to be acknowledged.
"I'm sorry dear but I must handle this", Franz told his wife as he turned to the two knights, "Cornus, Altair, what have you to report?"
"Sir, two more settlements have been sacked, there were no survivors and we cannot confirm the attackers, but we did notice....."

...a lot of arrows that look like Dark Elf handiwork, look!" Franz stared at the black feathers.
"But it doesnt make sense Sir because there were also the bodies of many greenskins lying around?" Momentarily the Empire Lord looked worn and tired and then anger flashed across his face again; "Blast it, rest and recuperate what little you can. We ride out at first light!"

Meanwhile... (cos no one else has posted)

Mordraine stood in the open doorway of her cell. Five bloody months she'd been in there. She looked at the object in her hand, lightweight, hard, thin metal arrow head, it had served her well and she looked at the crumpled heap of the dead prison warden at her feet. She looked at the slip of paper that had been attached to the arrow that had come in through her window just three days ago, 'Best of Luck, Morannon' she crumpled it, grinned and walked qietly away from the cell.

THIS LOOKS LIKE THE NATURAL END FOR CHAPTER ONE

:clap: :clap: :clap:

WHAT FOLLOWS IS CHAPTER TWO...

meanwhile...

Blackfistfist took his axe from the orc boss' neck.He had found a tribe of greenies with the shaman and had challenged the leader of the tribe.Easy-peasy,thought black fist.
"any ovver of you pansies wanna challenge me?Or are ya too scared of ya new boss?"
A gigantic orc,more like a troll than and orc,stood up and unsheathed the largest scimitar Blackfist had ever seen.even bogs**t looked pale.Blackfist gulped as he readied himself.

The towering orc spit on the ground before charging Blackfist. Th scimitar swung around with surprising speed but Blackfist has able to bring his axe up and block it. The force of the blow sent Blackfist's axe flying but the black orc wasn't about to lose to a greenskin. Lowering his head he rammed the monsterous orc in the gut, causing it to drop it's scimitar, and the pair began to grapple.

The gigantic Orc managed to lock Blackfist into a vicelike bearhug. Blackfist's arms were uselessly pinned against his sides. As the giant greenskin squeezed, Blackfist thought quickly, dropped his body-weight then jumped up, both his feet onto the giant Orc's thighs, with the momentum of the surprise-jump Blackfist headbutted the greenskin, crushing the orcs nose into a bloody mess which resulted in Blackfist being released from the grapple...

The giant orc, stunned by the pain, stumbled backwards groggily as Blackfist stepped forward, a jagged but sharp blade sliding into his hand from inside his iron wristband. With a roar of triumph, Blackfist drove the crude knife into the giant orc's throat, severing its windpipe in a spray of gore. As the giant orc crumpled before him, Blackfist reached forward, and, grabbing hold of his fallen enemy's hair, gave a mighty tug, pulling its head free and bearing it aloft for all to see.
"Ize da winner!" He roared, concious of the other orcs awe and fear, "Anyone else?"

(Fatality!)

"I tells ya scum! Da bigger dey are da harder dey fall!" He looked around at the cowaring greenskins; Bogshat could feel green energy tingling in his fingertips. Blackfist threw the orc head into a nearby campfire, "Cook him up for breakfast ladz! if ya wanna learn how to fight a bigun, then take me as your Warboss and I'll teach ya good!"

blackfist picked up his axe and held it high above his head he cried out
"WAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!""the orcs,drew their weapons above their heads and replied ,
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!"".Bogsh*t smiled wickedly, the power of the WAAAAGGGHHHH! blackfist coursing through his body,He knew Mork and Gork would make him the most powerful shaman in the world, and Blackfist was his puppet.






(is it too long?)

The greenskins went about there hustle and bustle. Blackfist approached Bogshat, "Well wot ya reckon then?" Bogshat scanned the camp, it wasnt big, mostly goblins, some orcs, and a couple of old Black Orcs. "Snot a nuff Blackfist! we needs more ladz an we needs some Boars and Wolves to take on the Empire orses!, we'll have ta go deeper into the Badlands... Sum Trolls would be good too."

"Ok, but it gonna take a while to get all dat, and we aint gonna have any real fights until we get back", Blackfist told the shaman in reply.
"It cant be elped, but dont woory, we'll be back soon."
The massive black orc sighed and turned back to the camp, he went about smashing some heads to get the camp ready to move out.

(OK. LOOKS LIKE BLACKFIST IS OFF BOAR N TROLL HUNTING...LETS GO SEE WHAT THE LIZARDS ARE UP TO WITH THE CHILDREN. MY LUSTRIAN KNOWLEDGE IS VERY SCANT SO SOMEONE ELSE SET THE BALL ROLLING...please.)

(that would be assuming they actually have gone back to Lustria)

CHAPTER 3

Tehexi drew the circle in the dirt as he had many times before, and stepped into it before spreading the small leaves around it. Closing his eyes and concentrating he opened his mind and felt the presence of Loqrikai.
"The children have been secured", the skink priest spoke to the spiritual presence.
"Excellent, keep them safe and do not let their family reclaim them, it is too dangerous for them here at the temple or home with their parents."

The skink priest removed a purple crystal from beneath his tunic. thought for a moment then said, "What should be done now? with the children secured, do we just wait or go on with the next stage of the journey?" The purple crystal became hot and the skink dropped it to the ground, the spiritual voice within and beyond the circle, said...