Enjoy!
Warmachine/Hordes Campaign Story: Figurehead-campaign
It all began several months ago, in the dead of night, when unseen by most Zevanna Agha had made her way through the imperial palace at Korsk right into the bedchamber of the Empress Vanar. The empress, who was vast asleep, suddenly felt a hand moving over her mouth an woke up in fear and anger. She was about to ask what was so important that it couldn’t wait until morning when she saw who had awoken her.
“Yyyouu, here, old crone, is there really no end to your brutality? How dare you enter the private chamber of your Empress, I should have you flogged for such a stunt.”
“Be silent, child, you may be the self-proclaimed Empress of our Motherland and evervune in the land may bow for you but to me you are nothing more than a spoiled little child and I have seen kings and empires come and go, so listen to vhat I have to say to you!”:hissed the witch silently. “A great chance lies vithin your grasp, a chance to finally slay all the enemies of the Motherland if you are villing to take it. I now know the location of the largest cache of magical veapons the Orgoth left behind vhen they retreated from these lands. Veapons that will make the fellblades seem like toys. Veapons that vill tip the balance of var in our favour. But they vill not be found in the soil of the Motherland!”
“What are you talking about?” :the Empress asked and Zevanna saw in the eyes of the Empress that she now had the complete attention of the child. An so she explained the child what had to be done…
* * *
Early in the morning Zerkova was woken up by the heavy thumping of a chainmailed hand on the door of her bedroom. She wondered who had the courage to wake her up so early and jumped out of bed. As she put on a long black robe to hide her naked body from whoever it was that was standing at her door, there came another thumping on the door. “Oh, great”, she thought, “the fool is in a hurry to die!”
She walked over to the door and yanked it open in a burst. She was about to start yelling at the man in front of the door when she recognized him; Koldun Yan Kiryanof, the right hand of the Great Vizier Blaustavya. She immediately restrained her temper and asked in an almost neutral tone of voice: “What is wrong, Yan, where’s the fire?”
The man looked at her, she could swear he even stared at her breasts for a few seconds and then he answered quickly: “Y-you have been summoned by the Grand Vizier, Kommander, you should follow me!”
“Do I have time to get dressed or do I have to follow you half naked through these cold corridors to the Vizier’s room?”:she joked as she looked at him. She had always hated this man, a man without a bone in his back. How he had become the right hand of one of the most dangerous men in the Motherland had always puzzled her. But this was not the time for puzzles. This was the time to get dressed because the Grand Vizier didn’t like to be kept waiting, not even by his most favorite Kommander. “Wait for me her, I’ll be out in a minute or two!”:she ordered Yan and she closed the door before he had the time to respond.
Five minutes later she was following Yan through the maze of corridors that lead to the Vizier’s chamber. She was a bit surprised to learn that he had ordered her to be brought to his private rooms, not his workroom. But then with the Grand Vizier and chief of Khadors security and of the Prikaz one could always expect something strange.
Finally they arrived at a black oak door and Yan knocked at it. A harsh voice inside said: “Enter, Kommander Zerkova, and Yan, guard the door!”
As soon as she stepped into the room she knew something was wrong because not only the Grand Vizier was there but also Zevanna Agha and Zerkova knew that when the Old Witch was involved, things were serious…
***
Three months she had been away, since that morning she had been summoned to the Vizier’s private chambers, but the info she had gathered all pointed in the same direction; the Witch had spoken the truth! That alone had been a first because in the past the Witch had always kept part of the truth hidden for all except herself of course. But this time all the evidence Zerkova had been gathering in utmost secrecy had only been proof of what the Witch had told her and the Vizier that morning and beside them only the Empress herself also knew of this.
She entered the palace and made her way to the Grand Vizier’s workroom. After a few corridors she came at a double door with 2 greylords posted on each side. As Zekova came closer the 2 guards came to life. One of them asked her if she had made an appointment with the Grand Vizier. She didn’t have time to deal with them and she shouted at them. “Get out of my way if you know what is good for you! I’ve just returned from a mission for the Grand Vizier with news from the utmost importance. He should get this news as soon as possible and if you want to stop me and send me on my way, that’s your choice …. and your life.”
The greylords looked at each other and resumed their places at each side of the doors and let her pass. She opened the door without knocking and found the Grand Vizier at his desk with two other Kolduns, luckily Yan wasn’t one of them. Blaustavya looked up at her and immediately asked the Kolduns to leave the room and come back later. After they had closed the door behind them, he looked at her and asked: “So, was she right, is it there?”
Zerkova could see the impatience flicker in his eyes and she knew that he was not a man one should keep waiting. “Something is”, she said, “but I don’t know if it really is what the Witch has said. But it is surely Orgoth because the Rod of Whispers was attracted to it like maggots to dead flesh. Even some of the other Orgoth artifacts drew in more power than usual. But we cannot be sure what it is as long as we can’t start to dig it up. And we can’t start to dig it up as long as the island is not retaken from the Pirates and Toruk’s minions. And we can only do that if we send an invasion fleet! And as all our forces in the regular army are under Irusk’s command and otherwise occupied, he will not let us take a force that could do the job without any problems!”
Blaustavya started smiling and said in a soft voice: “Who said we were going to use the regular army for this invasion, you forget the Prikaz army!”
“What Prikaz army,” Zerkova asked, “I’m afraid a few wizards and some police troops will not do the trick!”
“Oh, but since you’ve been gone to the island I have started reforming the Prikaz army with the help of a few enlightened, and more important, rich persons from inside our empire who had understood that a secret army to police our new empire and to act upon special situations no longer was a luxury but something our empire could no longer do without. And now, three months later, I assure you that this army is no longer just some wizards and a police force. It has become an army of its own who only takes orders from me and our Empress!”
Now it was Zerkova who was smiling. “Then with that army we may have a good chance at taking the island back from the Unliving. But what about the Empress, will she be willing to risk this new army to such an endeavor?”
“Don’t worry about that, my child, I still have some influence with our leader,” answered Blaustavya, “I’m going to inform the Empress right away! Do you want to come along, Aleksandra?”
She looked at him, started laughing and slowly said: “Nah, I’ve seen the Empress more than enough already and I’m dying for a hot bath and a few hours of sleep in my own bed because the last months I’ve been without the luxury of both.”
“As you will, Aleksandra, but be prepared because if things go as planned I, and the Empress, will be calling on your services again!” With that said, he turned around and walked out of the room…
***
“Sir, Sir, wake up!”
General Adept Sebastian Nemo slowly opened his eyes. He needed a few moments to get his bearings but realized he had fallen asleep at his desk, again.
“Blasted war”, he murmured under his voice, “what I wouldn’t give for some peace and quiet. I’m losing too much sleep over this!” He looked at the young officer who was standing in his office just in front of his desk. He immediately saw that he was wearing the insignia of the intelligence branch of the army. He repositioned himself at the desk and asked the officer: “What’s the matter, son, are those blasted Menites on the move again or is it the Khadorans that are at us again?”
The officer just smiled at him and handed him a small parcel with the seal of the Intelligence Service on it.”I don’t know, Sir, but I had to give you this with the utmost urgency!” The officer saluted hi, turned around and walked out of his office again.
Nemo wondered if he would ever see this boy again now that so many of Cygnar’s finest died on the battlefield almost every day. He opened the parcel and started reading. It was an intelligence report from Cygnar spies in Korsk, smuggled out of the Motherland with great difficulty. There was an accurate report on the coming and going of all important persons at the Prikaz’ palace. Most was nothing special and Nemo was about to throw the report on the stash of reports that littered his desk when he saw a name that drew his attention. Almost 3 and a half months ago Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova had been seen leaving the palace in the dead of night. One of the spies had followed her to Vladovar where she had embarked on a merchant ship. The spy had apparently also booked passage on the ship and Zerkova had been dropped off at Five Fingers. There she had stayed for a few days until she had booked passage on a merchant ship of questionable reputation. Again the spy had followed her and apparently the ship had taken her to Figurehead, one of the smaller Scharde Islands in the Dying Strands. She had disembarked at one of the pirate harbors on the island and then she had eluded the spy. The next time he saw her was 1 month later when she had been at the docks of the pirate harbor bartering a passage to Five Fingers. As they arrived at Five Fingers she was picked up by a Khador merchant vessel again and this vessel set a course to Vladovar. From there she went straight away to the Prikaz palace again. A few days after her return the work of rebuilding the fleet at Vladovar was sped up at high pace. Even a large amount of troopships had been build. And there also was news that several army units of unknown origin were amassing near Vladovar.
Nemo paused for a moment. “Troopships” , he wondered, “what are those warmongers up to next? An invasion of Ord by sea? An attack on one of our harbors?” But he knew that both would be suicidal actions but then again the Khadorians were crazy enough to try a stunt like that. He just continued reading. Apparently their spies had intercepted a few messages between the Grand Vizier and the Harbormaster at Vladovar. And if what he read next was true it seemed that the Old Witch was somehow involved as well and that they were preparing an invasion but an invasion of Figurehead itself. Nemo wondered what Zerkova had discovered there that was justifying the incredible loss of men and material such an invasion of a Cryx/Pirate island would mean. He pondered on this some more and suddenly his face grew white. He remembered that it was the Witch who had lead the Khadorian rulers to the Orgoth fellblades all these years ago, he had been much younger then when the Khadorians had used the Doom Reavers for the first time, and Zerkova was the Khadorians expert on Orgoth artifacts. Had they found a new cache of old Orgoth weaponry, hidden right under Turok’s nose?
He immediately took his pencil and started writing an note for the King and for Lord Commander Stryker. Khador needed to be stopped and the cache destroyed before any of the other nations ever discovered their existence.
***
Saxon Orrik had been in the service of Khador for a few weeks now to protect the convoys that went from the Prikaz’ palace to Vladovar from Trollkin, Everblight and Orboros raids and he had been privy to information that only the Khadoran officers normally had. He had gotten the info from a few officers whom he had taken with him, after their arrival at Vladovar, to the many pubs in the Light District and who couldn’t handle their drinks. Khador was preparing an invasion to one of the Cryx islands in order to search for something unknown but very powerfull to help them with their war effort. He had been a mercenary long enough to know that somewhere someone would pay handsome for such information. And he was sure that all fractions could be interested in such info. So once his services in Khador were no longer required he would take a little trip to Trollkin, Orboros, Menite and Skorne country and sell this info to whomever was willing to pay.
***
Eiryss was moving in and out of the shadows, stalking Zerkova from a distance. She knew that this Khadoran sorceress had been the one to capture Nyssor but although she had been stalking her the last month since she had returned to the Khadoran main city, up till now she had not been able to discover where Nyssor had been taken. And now the Khadorans were preparing an invasion of one of the islands of the Dark Empire. Only 2 nights ago Zerkova had been summoned to a meeting with the Empress, Blaustavya and all the other warcasters and field-commanders, even the more infamous Khadorans, like Fenris and Yuri the Manhunter, had attended this meeting. Even with all her stealth Eiryss had not been able to overhear this meeting but what had been obvious, was that this meeting was held to decide who was going to lead the invasion of the island known as Figurehead. This could not be a coincidence, this was something that was important and Eiryss had decided that this info had to reach Ios. She had dispatched several messengers and the answer had surprised her. Ios’ leaders had decided to send a force of their own to this island to find out what was so important as it was not only Khador that was preparing an invasion of this island. Cygnar and Protectorate armies were gathering as well in the harbors of their country, Eiryss knew this as Retribution spies had send reports to Ios about that. Apparently the Cygnar spies had informed their warcasters about the Khador plans and Menite spies had gathered the info from the Cygnar High Command and it was decided to send a crusade force against the island. Trollkin and Orboros forces were making deals with merchants and pirates to get them to the island as they too had gotten hold of this info by mercenary sources. Skorne troops had captured several merchant vessels in the south and were also on their way towards the island and tomorrow the Khador fleet was sailing off as well. Even in the North the Dragonspawn was gathering and descending towards the coasts. The only force that no one had heard something about was that of the Dragonfather, but Eiryss knew the this silence was not a good sign. She was sure that the Dragonfather’s minions had to know about this invasion of all the other races but the fact that there was only silence on Cryx’islands was not a good omen. Eiryss knew that a storm was building up but she wondered if the storm was not going to plunge their entire world into darkness and fire….
Thunderbolts Gent
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