Chapter Text
Date:?????/ Time:?????/ Location: Northern Ursan frontier
The snow slowly but surely chipped away at the mental fortitude and strenght of Reginald Turnhorn as he slowly heaved and helped pulled up one of the ravagers which had gotten stuck in the snow. The great beast let out a low grumble and groan as it was finally set free after a great combined effort of 10 of the 170 in the Tundric expidition.
The wind continued to howl all around him and his fellow lads as he watched as the Ravanger slowly began its trudge through the snow as the pillager let out a low shiver as more and more snow slowly bit away at him. While the cold was never one to effect him nor the members of his species such terrible temperatures and blizzards eventually had begun to take there toll.
He saw his breath become more and more frosty as small clouds formed every time he breathed, on the 2nd of the 3 ravagers with them one of the 4 chests tied to the great beast sides weaved and strained as more and more ice cold wind battered it and the beast all together, the pillagers feet felt like they where on fire with each step he took into the deep snow. It was a nether almost comparable to powdered snow.
The snow the deeper they had ventured into the tundra stopped supporting there weight and instead sunk them in creating a slow slug that was absolute nether for the large ranvagers and the chest they had strapped on. Humorously one of those riding on the ravagers, a fellow pillager entertained himself by looking through a spy glass trying to see past the blizzard and snow that battered them with each step they took.
"You'll never be able to see a single thing in this weather peragriff." Reginald called out to the rider as he briefly set down his spy glass and looked back at him blankly.
"While you are correct by the nether does anyone know when we will reach the end of this blasted blizzard and drift, by all means I will probably have had to pull out our little friend here for the 30th time from this tundra's strange powdered snow." Peragriff remarked bluntly and with some hidden humor as he patted the ravagers he rid on's head. The beast let out a low coo at the head pat as its horns hand some icicles hanging from them and where partially frozen over by the cold.
"Company Halt!" A cry was let out though it was nearly entirely muffled by the snow and Reginald struggled to see more than 10 feet in front of him, some probably 20 feet away at the very front of the column lay the raid captain. The cry however went down the line as slowly but surely the column came to a slow halt.
The Captain, a vindicator with a Dimond axe said to have been looted off a player who had fallen in battle against him, walked slowly but surely through the men assembled before him. Reginald held his crossbow across his waist in typical disciplined fashion, the bolt already loaded onto it as in the freezing cold, with temperatures by the END knows how low. The captain as usually did his daily inspection of those of the expedition.
The Vindicator first moves among those of his own ranks, his own race within the Illager species. The Vindicator troops among those honored by the blessings of multiple raids had been given shields and stood at rapped attention as their captain strolled down the lines, his grizzled scarred eye being among his more notable feature. Those new and freshly recruited vindicators who had just left there villages or had been lowly garrison troops in the raid towers before the expedition where equipped with there simple iron axes. Despite their freshness they like all young blood of their race, they were masters of the art of axe wielding and were a fine foe to most outside of the players.
The captain then strolled down to where the ravagers and by extension pillagers like himself where, in the middle of the column, to the captains side strolled 2 evokers, there hands behind there backs as they followed the grizzled raid veteran as he gave off a look throughout the inspection that could make a brainless zombie fear for its wretched life.
He briefly passed by Reginald, the pillager held back a sign of relief as the man strolled by him only giving him a brief look and letting out a nod of approval at the young pillagers kit. Once the inspection was done the captain strolled back to the front of the column and away from the pillagers sight as the snow covered the columns. Only muffled orders to begin marching again could be heard.
The advanced through the snow continued once more
Front of the Column, some hours later
The Raid Captain was a grizzled Vindicator to say the least, he had been one those few who manage to survive the on and off battles with the players, he had stormed over the ramparts of one of the villages they had been defending when he was a young lad. It had cost him his eye but in the fray of a fighting a lucky axe swing to one of the players who had his helmet broken turned into a death blow.
The Captain remembered the brains and blood of the player being splattered on him as they baked his face. In the carnage of another battle that would turn into another defeat he had taken the very Dimond axe he currently held. The Captain trudged through the snow as he felt his grey skin be peppered by more and more snow fall. The blizzards of the great tundra being more intense than the snows of the artic he had once bared witness to while on a march to raiding another village.
He had been given the honor, or possibly the curse of leading an expedition of 200 or so raiders forward into the vast tundra in the southern most lands of the continent, Grand Raid Chief Ferrnagin wanted to expand the reach of the species father and father, while the north and west where solidly under the control of the pathetic villagers and their player allies who defended them, the south and east where still free for more expansion. More places to set up observation towers and outposts to set claim to the land.
The snow continued to batter the vindicators body as he trudged forward at the front leading by direct example, 10 days of non stop marching, no sleep, and only briefly breaks to eat on the journey. Thus was the Illager species greatest advantage against the player, the player needed to sleep, the player often simply disappeared for hours and days, even months at time on end before they returned, the Illager would always remain awake, the idea of sleeping was foreign to an Illager, a species who spent there entire lifetime warring and raiding for the good of each other.
Despite this advantage and the first few easy days of travel 30 good Illagers had fallen, or simply disappeared in the blizzards as they expedition went farther and farther away from their homeland. There had by the 3rd day of travel many miles into the tundra been a fine line been drawn as the weather changed drastically from what was normal tundra weather and with it the snow. The snow was something of a mix of regular and powdered snow, though it leaned more on the powdered snow side of snow.
As he continued his march forward, the low groans and grunts of the ravangers echoing into infinity in the background as they struggled through the 3 foot deep snow, a light was finally beginning to be seen at the end of the tunnel or tundra. It wasn't just a light, many of them in the distance. That only meant one thing, a villager, a settlement.
"Company halt! Vindicators take up offensive formation, pillagers on the flanks crossbows loaded and ready, move the ravagers to the rear of the formation with the evokers, witches in front of the vindicators!" The captain barked in a series of orders as the expedition took up typical raid formation, based on the location of the dim lights it was easily to guess that the villager or settlement was at the bottom of some sort of incline or hill, meaning his expedition was on the high ground currently.
One of the evokers slowly and carefully drawled his way besides the captain, his hands now gently clasping and firmly tucked within his robes. The Captain eyes wandered off to the evoker curious of what the man wanted from him.
"I would advise caution captain, send out some forward scouts, pillagers preferable to get a good look of the village." The evoker advised carefully.
"That is not a bad suggestion, I want a party of 10 pillagers to move forward and get within clean line of sight with the village, once you have report back to me and described in detail your findings, the snow and blizzard has muffled our hearings quite a bit as well as blinded our line of sight past 10 paces." The captain began waving his hand to the side as from the flanks 10 pillagers, most of them young raiders who most likely where about go on there first raid gathered about cold but eager.
The snow brushed through the overcoat of the Captain as he carefully ran down each of the 10 pillagers, several of them armed with rocket arrows, and other with those tipped with witches magic to make them burn on contact with there unfortunate target. The Captain after a close inspection then gently stepped aside and the party of 10, a flag bearer carrying the sacred flag of the Illager nation on his back advanced forward and disappeared into the snow as they headed towards the lights that flashed in the great white blizzard.
Scouting party
Reginald slowly crotched through the snow as the biting cold ate away annoyingly enough at his skin which had some small frozen effects on it that bite away at the pillagers health though not enough to kill him per saw. He carefully kept his crossbow pointed forward as the members of his scouting party fanned out slowly as they got closer to the source of the lights.
By the time they where within 20 paces of the village they realized it wasn't the typical village lanterns that lit it, it was a fire. A fire had swept through the wooden cabins of the village as well as its houses eating away at the wood and destroying it slowly. The occupants of the village where not villagers, they where something else entirely, they where not too dissimilar to players but looked skinner and he noticed one with rabbit airs running for her life before a crossbow bolt went through the girls chest killing her.
It seems someone had arrived to raid the village first possibly. Strange beings of the same species possibly, covered in an all black leather armor of sorts with some wearing some sort of mask marched their way through the village, some armed with reddish swords that looked stranger than the average one hacked and slashed their way through the villages occupants in such an unflattering manner it made the young pillager want to throw up.
He had seen such massacres be recounted though witnessing one itself was an entirely knew experience, especially one as poorly handled as this one, their was not looting as his species did, just pure barbarism. The point of a raid was not only the extermination of the vile villager as swift as possible but also to loot what they had, leave not one resources that could be used left. Instead this was a disgrace of a raid, only focusing on drawing out the suffering for as long as possible.
Even worst it was being carried out on ones own species, a thought that revolted the pillager to a certain degree, it reminded him of a players to a degree when they had their "PVP" events and he watched them from a distance during his time as a simple scout as he got adjusted with life as a pillager raider. He quickly tapped the shoulder of the fellow pillager besides him, the raider nodded and darted back to report the findings to the Captain.
They watched from a distance, well as safe of a distance that could be without losing sight of the village, the massacre occur. Tens where being slaughtered, men, women children. Then he heard a faint whimper as he then looked down, from the snow crawled a small girl, a child of this species, she had long hair similar to that of the players to a degree as well as some rabbit ears of sorts, she crawled forever bleeding from her back and possibly stomach as she reached out for him, not caring how alien he must have looked to her just looking for some form of mercy.
Then the bolt of a crossbow went through her head splattering blood all over the pillagers overcoat.
The preparator was one of the men in black, the man noticed him seemingly shocked at his form as Reginald took a few step back still recovering from the growing shock in his blood at the chunks of flesh and blood now staining him. The pillager besides him clearly a veteran of the raids aimed his crossbow before the creature could react and fired. A bolt flew straight into the creature/man in blacks head killing him instantly.
"Shoot your red firework into the sky, we have been possibly made we need to attack now!." The veteran besides him barked to witch Reginald hastily nodded and loaded a rocket bolt with a read firework into his crossbow, he aimed it up at the sky and fired.
Back with the main formation
The Captain watched as a bright red light, a firework, exploded into the sky briefly illuminating through the blizzard before fizzling out, contact, and a hostile one at that.
"Company advance, prepare for battle! The scouts have made contact with a hostile force villager, player or something new it doesn't matter! Forward lads forward!!!" He barked as he raised his Dimond axe and lead his formed up Illagers forward. The snow most likely provided some form of cover as they descended down below, struggling a little and nearly slipping at several points as they decided the plateau they where on before then reaching the bottom.
Nearby the sounds of rockets exploding and death broke through the sound of the blizzard. They reached 20 paces from the village and found an inferno, the village was burning, they were dead every where and in the sides some of the scouts where slowly disappearing into the cover of the blizzard while firing off their crossbows.
From the village they where answered with crossbow bolts back from soldiers of some unknown species wearing black leather armor. The Captain faded into the shield wall at the front of the vindicator ranks taking cover as several bolts where fired there way and cracked and broke against the disciplined shields of the eliter vindicators.
From the flanks of the shield formations 20 pillagers divided into groups of 10 on each flank opened fire they own salvo hitting their enemies and those to be slaughtered with accurate fire that tore through 5 of the crossbow men of the other side butchering them with tens of crossbow bolts while others where wounded and dragged away by there fellow soldiers.
As the men in black wavered in the ranged duel the Captain sounded his goat horn making a low but loud noise, a noise that signified the 2nd phase of the attack, witches advanced forward throwing there potions as they now retreating enemy soldier, there potions of slowness rendering the retreating enemies run to a crawl while those hit with poison found their armor slowly being melted away before it reached their flesh and began to slowly kill them.
Those hit with the poison effects lead out blood curdling screams as the unwavering tide of his men marched into the burning village and fanned out engaging the remaining soldiers in combat. One of the remnants of these creatures soldiers rushed at him, the creature large red sword moving to slash at his face though the vindicator swiftly stepped to the side dodging the attack before punching the creature across the face cracking his masks lenses before then plunging his axe into the lanky creatures chest as blood dripped out of creatures wounds as it died.
All around him death reigned as one by one any remnants of the villagers inhabitants and the soldiers where hacked, shot, or blunged to death in the fighting. The 2 evokers unleashed their arts upon the damned and the fools who had chosen to make an enemy of the Illager race as Vek's armed with their small swords swarmed individual soldiers and cut them down.
Another foolish enemy tried to slash at him as the vindicator, screaming in an unknown language and with what seemed to be a warcry maybe. The Captain weaved and dodge before elbowing the creature across the chin before he himself earning a direct punch to the face from one of the creatures sending the vindicator stumbling back. Blood dripped from his mouth as the creature raised it red blade only for an firework bolt to hit the creatures black.
The creatures back exploded and the rest of its body lit on fire as its flesh melted as it fell on the ground dead as a doornail.
The Captain watched as a pillager approached him, his hands shaking on his crossbow. The vindicator could only let out a small and gratifying smile at the young raider as he brought himself up.
"You saved my life young one, your name?" The Captain asked the young pillager.
"Reginald sir." The young one saluted hastily.
"Well Reginald, you get looting rights to this body then as a reward." The captain said chuckling as the Pillager beamed and let out a few excited thank you's before crouching down to his fresh kill and looting what the enemy combatant had.
In the last standing building of the village, a decently sized wooden house, the sacred flag was being planted
The Illager flag