Chapter 2A: For The Empire!



Year 20

"Watch it the last ones are coming from the left side!" you shout, pointing at the barbarian wolfmen breaking through the barricade.

Two of your number go down before the might of the wolfmen. As always you find yourself having to do things yourself. Not that you're adverse to placing yourself in the thick of battle, but sometimes you get a little tired of having to micromanage.

One of the wolfmen goes down by your blade with ease, the other three however are shot full of bolts, though you were very nearly in the crossfire.

"DAMMIT, watch where you're shooting!" You shout at the dark elven mercenaries.
"Oh stop being so dramatic, we've been shooting with these crossbows longer than you've even been alive I'd wager." One of them replies, followed by a few snickers.

You shake your head at the fact that you have to routinely work with them, let alone having to put up with their kind. Then again you've had to put up with a lot around here for the past four years.

"Are we done fighting these dogs now? When are we going to get back to killing more sveld? That's a lot more fun." One of the mercenaries says.
"You aren't getting paid to have fun svelk! You're getting paid to do your job. If you really want to go murder your tree loving cousins so bad, we're not stopping you." You say.
"Whatever monkey, our job here is done, we're heading back. Let us know when you need our help again." The mercenary says and they leave.

You survey the damage to the logging camp and it's going to be awhile before this place is up and running to it's full capabilities again. Still, today is a victory and despite everything, you've managed to eliminate more enemies even if it does seem like they are everywhere in this harsh cold land.

Unfortunately nowadays the Rask frontier isn't the only place where the Empire has been having problems. Open war broke out with the Felkan Kingdom a couple years ago. Sometimes you wonder how things are going with Warrick and Gerald, but you've never heard anything about them, or from them.

In fact you rarely hear news from anywhere unless it directly concerns you defending mining towns, logging town, or outposts from barbarians or the forest elves. It's never pretty here, but you can only imagine what they deal with up at Fort Defiance where they routinely face ogres and sometimes even giants. You have heard that Edgar has made quite a name for himself with some of his actions. In a way you're glad, because he's living up to the title of an Eternal and doing honor by serving with distinction…still, knowing him he's doing it all to try to "beat" you.

As for you, you've made quite a name for yourself as well. You have improved the mortality rate of the soldiers here a little (most notably the ones serving under you), but you've also managed to successfully defend several towns with low citizen casualties too.

The greatest accomplishments of yours are the complete destruction of several hostile barbarian tribes. The Black Wolves, the Enclave of the Bear, the Blood Boars, and other minor shape changing tribes have all been exterminated thanks to your relentless nature. Indeed, you've become so infamous that the barbarian tribes in this land have come to call you the "The Bane of Rask."

This recent battle was a last desperate regroup attack by one of the tribes, the "Silver Fangs" after you wiped out all their women and children in an attack on their camp. Grim business to be sure, but it wasn't first time and it certainly won't be the last. These tribes must learn that they cannot stand against the might of the Empire or the Emperor. If they can only learn that with their extinction then so be it.

You report your victory to Captain Krozer.

"Excellent as always lieutenant. I know time after time I can count on you. Which leads me to the next major task. From what I can tell we've managed to eliminate the major threats in this particular area of the Rask frontier, but we have two left. The forest elves and the Wendigo tribe are the two in question and I'm wondering which one we should focus our attention on first."

"Well I can tell you that the Wendigo tribe will be a challenge. They're the biggest, toughest and meanest of all the barbarian shape shifters. So far we haven't had a large battle with them yet, but with our extermination of the other tribes, the time is getting closer. As for the elves, it will be more tedious than anything as they use a lot of guerilla tactics and such. We've still never found any sort of home, base or camp of theirs, but I suppose those dark elven mercs will be more than willing to help us with eliminating them. I'm sure their leader, Edolith will most likely demand a high price as usual though." You say.

"(Sigh) Yeah, I'm sure she will. Things are never easy here. Fuck it; we're pushing forward on both groups right now and putting an end to it once and for all. The question is, would you prefer to lead a company against the Wendigo tribe or go on a seek and destroy mission on the forest elves."

You seek out the elves

"I've had to work around those svelk for a while now. If they're going to help us attack the elves, it might be a good idea for me to go on that one so I can keep an eye on them, captain." You say.
"Yes, you do have a reputation even among those shifty bastards, though they'd never admit it. Okay, sounds good. I shall send another officer to lead the mission against the Wendigo tribe. I may even just go along on that mission." Captain Krozer replies.
"You are captain?"
"Yes, I find that I've been getting stuck behind the desk too much lately. It'll be good to be back out in the field. Don't want to become like one of those fat self-important generals that do nothing except point to maps and make equally fat musings on tactics. A true leader should lead from the front, I'm sure you agree."
"It is preferable yes…but I do understand the need to keep those with keen military minds safe from major war zones. Such people have their place as all do in their service of the Emperor."
"Why lieutenant, are you complimenting me on my intelligence? It's not like you to flirt." Captain Krozer asks in a tone slightly friendlier than usual, it catches you a little off guard.
"I…no! I mean yes, you are very intelligent, but…"
"Relax lieutenant, just having a little fun, didn't mean to put you on the spot. Anyway, we'll pick this up later, you better get prepared for your mission, and good luck."

You do exactly that. You know that this is going to be a tedious mission. The elves rarely ever fight in straight up combat. It's typically a series of ambushes and hit and run tactics with some traps thrown in for good measure. Attempting to locate their hideout is going to be equally as tedious. While the dark elves will certainly be helpful, you wish you had a few battle wizards, but most of those have been assigned either at Fort Defiance or on the frontlines of the Felkan War.

The first thing you do is talk with the leader of the dark elven mercenaries about how would be the best way to track down the elves. Eldolith normally is outwardly disdainful of humans, but she manages to just barely contain that distain in your case. She's typical of her kind, arrogant and acts like she's doing you a favor just by being in your presence. Reminds you of the days when Mistress trained you.

"Ah the Bane of Rask, if it isn't my favorite mon…human. What do I owe this dubious pleasure?" she asks while polishing one of her leather boots.
"We want to find the elven home and destroy them for good."
"Finally ready to destroy those sveld eh? About fucking time. The whole time we've been playing around with your semi-evolved barbaric kin, I've had a few of my men out scouting this entire forsaken frontier. We got a lead a few months ago and we're pretty sure it's good."
"Wait. Hold on. You've known where they've been hiding and you didn't report it to us?"
"As I recall your superior isn't paying us for reconnaissance. We're just here to fight. Besides, it's still not necessarily a one hundred percent sure thing."
"If you're so opposed to doing jobs that you aren't being paid for, why'd you do this secret scouting mission anyway?"
"We're also not just here for YOU, human. We have our own agenda. The only reason why we have not followed up on this lead, is because we've been busy helping you monkeys, not to mention we all felt it would also be best if we had more warm bodies to distract our hated kind with. Congratulations." Eldolith sneers.

In typical dark elf fashion she's attempting to provoke you to get angry for her amusement and to put on a show for her men. Won't work though.

"Wise decision Eldolith. No way you could've handled them yourselves."
"We could have, but as I stated we were busy helping YOU."
"If you say so. Anyway I'll expect to your group to be ready in a couple hours." You say and leave, but your own dismissive behavior annoys Eldolith so much that she boldly grabs your arm. This is all the excuse you needed.

"Don't you turn your back on…ack!" Eldolith is interrupted when you quickly turn around grab her arm, spin her around and twist it behind her back. You other arm is wrapped tightly around her neck.

Her men grab their crossbows and point them at you, but it's a futile gesture, she's in front of you, they'd be more likely to hit her than you.

"Put your bows down you fools!" she struggles to yell.
"I advise you all to heed your leader's orders. Even if you did manage to kill me, not one of you would make it out of this fort alive. I might remind you that you initiated this by putting your hands on me in the first place, surely I had the right to defend myself correct?"
"(Sigh) Yes, it would've been foolish to react in any other way I suppose. The mistake was mine. Ugh, I'm going to have the stench of human on me for days. Release me!"

No please or begging of course, just more orders. Still, you've made your point. You let her go by shoving her down on the floor. As you leave you can hear her verbally abusing her own men. She's going to have problems maintaining her leadership position now after looking so weak. You're going to have to be careful as well, lest you "accidentally" get a bolt in the back during the heat of battle, but then again you're always alert while dark elves are around.

Eventually you set off on your mission. For a while it's a simple uneventful march through ice and snow. Eldolith mentions that the Alabaster Pines are where they think the elves are making their home, but not in the traditional sense. There is evidence that they are actually making their home underground.

"Can you believe it? Members of our kind actually living like those disgusting rock eaters? It shames me to even think that these sveld were actually even related to us at one time." Edolith says.

When you reach the Alabaster Pines, you remind your company to keep alert for traps and potential ambushes. You also tell them to keep alert of your so called "allies" as well.

It doesn't take long before you're attacked. The elves predictably engage in their guerilla tactics. These attacks might've taken a greater toll, but with the help of the dark elves, the long range attacks that they favor are less effective. The deeper you go into the forest, the more desperate the attacks become. They begin to attack you directly in hand to hand combat and to the death. They scream curses and obscenities in your language and their own calling you all murderers and evil.

The dark elves of course are enjoying all this. You and your company on the other hand aren't. Not due to any sort of sympathy they are the enemy after all, but this is just another mission to you. Funny that you should have a more "detached" attitude than the mercenaries themselves.

Soon you enter a part of the forest where the trees are so tall that they completely block out the sky. There isn't even that much snow ground. Almost a "warm" feeling encompasses the place.

"One of my scouts said they made it this far before and that's where he found evidence that these sveld had an entrance to an underground lair. Should be near an odd blue rock. Let's look around." Edolith says to you.
"Where's that scout of yours, shouldn't he be able to show us directly?" you ask.
"The useless bastard is lying dead with two sveld arrows in him a mile back. Now come on, we'll be able to find this place better if all us look."
"I'm not sure. Something about this seems too easy. Why don't you look, and we'll stay alert to make sure this isn't an ambush."
"If the sveld were going to ambush us, they would've done it by now or haven't you noticed how desperate their attacks have gotten? They probably already know we're coming and building up defenses as we speak. The longer we take, the tougher it's going to be to root them out."

You help in the search

Edolith's right, the elves would've attacked already. You order your men to help in the search. It doesn't take long to find what you're looking for.

"Lieutenant! I found a blue rock and it looks like there's a hidden door in the ground." One of your men yells.
"Your monkeys are as subtle as ever with their howling." Edolith says. You ignore her and make your way to the location along with the rest of your company.

You look down the hole and see a long ladder descend into the darkness. This will probably be the most dangerous part as the elves could pick you off as you attempt to climb down. Elves can see in the dark, while you and your men are going to have to rely on torches. You're about to go down, when several of your men volunteer first, claiming that they'd rather you not be placed in potential uncertain danger as your combat skills will be necessary for the final battle to come. You reluctantly agree and allow it.

"Ah blind loyalty, such a wonderful thing is it not?" Edolith says. "I could only wish my own men would volunteer their lives so selflessly rather than me having to threaten them. Of course if I didn't threaten them every now and then, they'd forget their place and try to stab me in the back."

While Edolith's speech on dark elf culture is fascinating, you are in no mood to hear anymore of her musings, so you descend down the ladder next.

As it turns out there wasn't anything to worry about, your men that have proceeded before you are safely waiting for you at the bottom. They say they haven't even noticed any traps, though it's pretty dark down here. You call up and say you want the svelk to start coming down since their own night vision will come in handy. When enough of them have descended down the ladder, you begin to proceed ahead.

You travel down a long corridor of dirt with a couple of the dark elves leading the way. You arrive at what is a larger open area with minor lighting and that's when you hear more shouting followed by higher pitched screams. One of the dark elves yells at everyone to either get out of the way or duck. A bright ball of flame then appears. You just barely manage to scramble out of the mouth of the corridor and into the dirt before the fireball engulfs a good portion of it. Most of the people who were near the front end of it are incinerated instantly while the ones towards the back you can only hope that the blast didn't travel that far.

You and a the few dark elves that got out of the way engage what looks to be an older elf mumbling something in his language. He's obviously a wizard. The dark elves attempt to take him down with their repeating crossbows, but he has some sort of magic shield up. The dark elves keep firing as he picks them off with well placed lightning bolts, you take cover behind some sort of house structure. You can hear whimpering inside and also hear the rest of your men and dark elves who didn't get caught in the fire blast rush into the area.

"Don't just stand out in the open catching lightning bolts! Take cover and keep firing!" you hear Edolith shout.

You peer out from behind your cover and see your men valiantly attempt to rush the wizard, but only succeeding in dying to his lightning spell which conducts and spreads very well due to their metal armor. The dark elves can't break through his barrier either, the only option will be to get in close enough to chop his head off or get him to drop his shield, but how to do that without getting fried is another matter.

Still hearing the whimpering from inside the house structure, you quickly run inside to investigate. Inside you see a female elf with a younger one cowering in the corner of their home. They say something in their language, which you can only guess is pleas for you not to kill them. You also see a crib with a baby in it and you quickly get a plan.

You grab the baby and push aside the mother's feeble attempts to stop you. Carrying the crying baby under your arm you run out of the house. You see the wizard still blasting bolts at the dark elves and you make a beeline towards him. He notices you and as he begins to cast his spell you throw the baby at him as hard as you can. The shock of having a baby thrown at him catches him severely off guard and he stops casting. He also drops his shield to catch the baby.

"FIRE!" you hear Eldolith shout and the dark elves comply.

Bolts sinks into the wizard's head dropping him.
Another bolt ceases the baby's cries.
Several more bolts enter your body. You crash to the ground severely wounded.

You attempt to crawl away, but you're coughing up blood and already breathing hard. Edolith runs over to you and kicks the sword out of your hand when you weakly attempt to defend yourself.

"Baby throwing…I gotta admit that was a good one. A worthy tactic of even a svelk. It's almost a shame I had to kill you. You weren't bad for a monkey, but I got a reputation to maintain among my own men. Just business, nothing personal. Well okay, maybe it is a little personal."

You grab at her leg while she gloats, your grip is strong enough that she has to hack your arm off before she can get her foot away. You lose consciousness just before Edolith announces the gleeful massacre of the remaining elven women and children.