http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/wfrp/3_media/wfrp_preview.html
theres the link to a video that tells you a little bit about it in depth, go ahead, take a look, and tell us what you think in our comments
Monday 16 November 2009
Friday 30 October 2009
The Wider World
The Empire is the largest and most powerful of all the Old World nations. It pretends to be united, but is divided into ten semi-independent provinces; the Grand County of Averland, the Grand Barony of Hochland, the Grand Duchies of Middenheim and Middenland, the Grand Barony of Nordland, the League of Ostermark, the Grand Principality of Ostland, the Grand Principality of the Reikland, the Grand County of Stirland, the Grand Duchy of Talabecland, and the Grand County of Wissenland. These are usually called simply by the last word in their official title: Averland, Hochland, Middenland, Nordland, Ostermark, Ostland, Reikland, Stirland, Talabecland, and Wissenland. Additionally, there used to be another state, Solland, but this was absorbed by Wissenland in the 18th century. Straddling the River Aver, between Averland and Stirland, is the Grand County of the Mootland (Mootland, or "the Moot" to Halflings). Ninety per cent of Imperial Halflings live here. It is completely encapsulated by the Empire, and relies on it for protection.
To the west of the Empire lies the Wasteland, so named for its absence of the trees that cover most of the Empire. It used to be part of the Empire itself, but bought independence in the 23rd century. Its capital is a huge seafaring city, Marienburg.
West of Marienburg lies the country of Brettonia, where mighty knights ride around with allegiances sworn to the King and the Lady of the Lake. Southwest of here is sunny Estalia, famed for its wine and swordsmen, and south of the Empire is Tilea, where some of the best engineers and mercenaries come from.
North of the Empire is a huge country called Norsca, with which the Empire is constantly at odds, sometimes fighting, sometimes trading, sometimes raiding, the Norse are tall, strong and heavy, and brutal fighters, renowned for their Berserkers. East of Norsca lies the Troll Countries and Kislev, a vodka-swilling nation allied to the Empire since time immemorial and famed for dedication to their bear-god Ursun, then east of this the Chaos wastes.
Far enough west, one comes across little known Naggaroth, Lustria, or maybe Ulthuan, the ancestral home of Elves. Far enough east, one encounters Ind, Nippon, and Far Cathay, bizarre but interesting countries that have much to offer in the way of trade goods and culture.
Finally, somewhere northwest of the Empire floats Albion, a miserable, misty, rainy, nigh inaccessable island populated entirely by eccentrics, but the most powerfully magical place in the universe. What Cathayans call ley lines converge under Albion, the Winds of Magic blow heavily about it, but next to nothing is known of this bizarre place.
To the west of the Empire lies the Wasteland, so named for its absence of the trees that cover most of the Empire. It used to be part of the Empire itself, but bought independence in the 23rd century. Its capital is a huge seafaring city, Marienburg.
West of Marienburg lies the country of Brettonia, where mighty knights ride around with allegiances sworn to the King and the Lady of the Lake. Southwest of here is sunny Estalia, famed for its wine and swordsmen, and south of the Empire is Tilea, where some of the best engineers and mercenaries come from.
North of the Empire is a huge country called Norsca, with which the Empire is constantly at odds, sometimes fighting, sometimes trading, sometimes raiding, the Norse are tall, strong and heavy, and brutal fighters, renowned for their Berserkers. East of Norsca lies the Troll Countries and Kislev, a vodka-swilling nation allied to the Empire since time immemorial and famed for dedication to their bear-god Ursun, then east of this the Chaos wastes.
Far enough west, one comes across little known Naggaroth, Lustria, or maybe Ulthuan, the ancestral home of Elves. Far enough east, one encounters Ind, Nippon, and Far Cathay, bizarre but interesting countries that have much to offer in the way of trade goods and culture.
Finally, somewhere northwest of the Empire floats Albion, a miserable, misty, rainy, nigh inaccessable island populated entirely by eccentrics, but the most powerfully magical place in the universe. What Cathayans call ley lines converge under Albion, the Winds of Magic blow heavily about it, but next to nothing is known of this bizarre place.
Saturday 24 October 2009
Wymund: Chapter Two
Wymund
Chapter Two: Taking Stock
I was jolted into semi-consciousness by the twin sensations of my own movement and a pain in my hip. When I woke up fully, I kept my eyes shut, trying to remember what had happened. A flash, a shockwave, and a bang. An explosion, I thought, was the only explanation. As it later transpired, I was right. My head bounced off a lumpy piece of earth on the floor. I opened my eyes reflexively, wondering what was now going on. It turned out to be Eldgrimr dragging me across the floor by my ankle.
"Eldgrimr, what are you doing? Let me go!" I shouted at him. He promptly dropped my leg and it fell to the floor. My kneecap hit a large pebble with quite some force and I stifled a grunt of pain. Eldgrimr walked away and began to walk through the town. "I'm looken fur a gut place to sleep dis night," he called. I sat up, rubbing the fresh bruise on my knee. What I saw was a scene unlike any I had ever witnessed. The town hall had been obliterated. All the furniture inside was reduced to ashes and I do not doubt that some of the roofing slates ended up half a mile away. Only a charred skeleton of the support beams held up. Behind it was a small pile of rubble. As I watched, the support beams leant dangerously. Scorched, blackened bodies lay inside the skeleton and crushed and mangled ones, the ones blown through windows or doors, or worse, the walls, lay outside.
Magdalyn, thankfully also alive, was kneeling down behind a tall man, who was sitting up. I went over to see what was going on.
The man had been hit on the back by a burning piece of wood. A half-foot wide patch of burn blisters cut a red-brown strip diagonally across the back of his shoulders, where he had lifted his shirt to allow Magdalyn to burst the blisters and rub a salve on the burnt skin. He had long, straight, dark hair. I went round to face his front, to have a look at him. His face, body, arms and legs were very thin, he had blue eyes, and he was betrayed as an Elf by his distinctively pointed ears. He was drinking watered wine from a waterskin. He was in a bad way, but Magdalyn looked up at me and said "He'll live."
"Greetings, young one." the Elf struggled to say. "My name is Torendror, and Longstaff in the Elvish tongue. By what name do men call you?"
"I'm Siegfried." I'd have been more polite, but my eyes were already roving towards the site of the explosion. You couldn't live long as an orphan without picking up scavenging skills. And with bodies to loot, maybe the odd usable weapon or two on the adventurers...well, I was tempted. So I walked over and started to rifle the pockets of the nearest crumpled corpse.
It was a man's body. He was five and a half feet tall and built fairly heavily, and dressed in leather armour that had been boiled in oil. It was in nobody's size, so I put my hand into his pockets and found a couple of handfuls of loose change. I stuffed the clank into my pouch and rifled his backpack. A broken lantern covered in its oil, a tankard with the handle knocked off and the bottom holed, a dagger with the blade bent, passed through my hands before I decided to get all the people's backpacks together and see what was worth keeping, rather than sift through. Torendror stiffened and groaned loudly as Magdalyn lanced a particularly large blister with a needle.
I went round and collected the backpacks up. There was a pouch or so's worth of change, a long coil of rope, a hammer with seven metal spikes, three daggers that had not been broken or bent, four torches, a kindling hatchet and a metal tinderbox, and best of all, a sword that matched my size and strength. I found it on the body of a particularly large Halfling. I strapped the sword around my waist, shoved the rest of my collection into a backpack and heaved it onto my shoulders. Now I thought I would go into the remains of the hall and look around. Not wanting to get burnt any more than was necessary, I found a corpse wearing a pair of boots that weren't much too large and put them on, then walked in wearing those.
It was awful, the state of things. Bodies were blackened and scorched everywhere. Their skin and flesh peeled off in red layers like an onion. Most of them had broken bones, and some of them showed through the skin. One man, who I guessed had been standing near the explosion, had had nearly every bone broken and was a crumpled wreck. Another had had everything from his stomach down blown out by some flying debris. The entrails sizzled on some of the red-hot coals that lay strewn across the floor, like a macabre string of sausages. The mayor himself had been launched against the front wall in a strange, almost-sitting position. His velvet robes had been burnt down to black rags and his chain of office was now a splatter of molten gold around his neck. I was sick on the guts, a gruesome stew. My vomit slapped against the organs and splashed, the coals hissing, the man's last meal oozing from his stomach to mix with mine. I left the place as fast as I could, violently shaking my head to remove the bodies from my mind's eye.
Chapter Two: Taking Stock
I was jolted into semi-consciousness by the twin sensations of my own movement and a pain in my hip. When I woke up fully, I kept my eyes shut, trying to remember what had happened. A flash, a shockwave, and a bang. An explosion, I thought, was the only explanation. As it later transpired, I was right. My head bounced off a lumpy piece of earth on the floor. I opened my eyes reflexively, wondering what was now going on. It turned out to be Eldgrimr dragging me across the floor by my ankle.
"Eldgrimr, what are you doing? Let me go!" I shouted at him. He promptly dropped my leg and it fell to the floor. My kneecap hit a large pebble with quite some force and I stifled a grunt of pain. Eldgrimr walked away and began to walk through the town. "I'm looken fur a gut place to sleep dis night," he called. I sat up, rubbing the fresh bruise on my knee. What I saw was a scene unlike any I had ever witnessed. The town hall had been obliterated. All the furniture inside was reduced to ashes and I do not doubt that some of the roofing slates ended up half a mile away. Only a charred skeleton of the support beams held up. Behind it was a small pile of rubble. As I watched, the support beams leant dangerously. Scorched, blackened bodies lay inside the skeleton and crushed and mangled ones, the ones blown through windows or doors, or worse, the walls, lay outside.
Magdalyn, thankfully also alive, was kneeling down behind a tall man, who was sitting up. I went over to see what was going on.
The man had been hit on the back by a burning piece of wood. A half-foot wide patch of burn blisters cut a red-brown strip diagonally across the back of his shoulders, where he had lifted his shirt to allow Magdalyn to burst the blisters and rub a salve on the burnt skin. He had long, straight, dark hair. I went round to face his front, to have a look at him. His face, body, arms and legs were very thin, he had blue eyes, and he was betrayed as an Elf by his distinctively pointed ears. He was drinking watered wine from a waterskin. He was in a bad way, but Magdalyn looked up at me and said "He'll live."
"Greetings, young one." the Elf struggled to say. "My name is Torendror, and Longstaff in the Elvish tongue. By what name do men call you?"
"I'm Siegfried." I'd have been more polite, but my eyes were already roving towards the site of the explosion. You couldn't live long as an orphan without picking up scavenging skills. And with bodies to loot, maybe the odd usable weapon or two on the adventurers...well, I was tempted. So I walked over and started to rifle the pockets of the nearest crumpled corpse.
It was a man's body. He was five and a half feet tall and built fairly heavily, and dressed in leather armour that had been boiled in oil. It was in nobody's size, so I put my hand into his pockets and found a couple of handfuls of loose change. I stuffed the clank into my pouch and rifled his backpack. A broken lantern covered in its oil, a tankard with the handle knocked off and the bottom holed, a dagger with the blade bent, passed through my hands before I decided to get all the people's backpacks together and see what was worth keeping, rather than sift through. Torendror stiffened and groaned loudly as Magdalyn lanced a particularly large blister with a needle.
I went round and collected the backpacks up. There was a pouch or so's worth of change, a long coil of rope, a hammer with seven metal spikes, three daggers that had not been broken or bent, four torches, a kindling hatchet and a metal tinderbox, and best of all, a sword that matched my size and strength. I found it on the body of a particularly large Halfling. I strapped the sword around my waist, shoved the rest of my collection into a backpack and heaved it onto my shoulders. Now I thought I would go into the remains of the hall and look around. Not wanting to get burnt any more than was necessary, I found a corpse wearing a pair of boots that weren't much too large and put them on, then walked in wearing those.
It was awful, the state of things. Bodies were blackened and scorched everywhere. Their skin and flesh peeled off in red layers like an onion. Most of them had broken bones, and some of them showed through the skin. One man, who I guessed had been standing near the explosion, had had nearly every bone broken and was a crumpled wreck. Another had had everything from his stomach down blown out by some flying debris. The entrails sizzled on some of the red-hot coals that lay strewn across the floor, like a macabre string of sausages. The mayor himself had been launched against the front wall in a strange, almost-sitting position. His velvet robes had been burnt down to black rags and his chain of office was now a splatter of molten gold around his neck. I was sick on the guts, a gruesome stew. My vomit slapped against the organs and splashed, the coals hissing, the man's last meal oozing from his stomach to mix with mine. I left the place as fast as I could, violently shaking my head to remove the bodies from my mind's eye.
Monday 19 October 2009
Warhammer invasion: the card game
today, i got my hands on warhammer invasion, the card game. now, ive played magic and even a bit of the wow card game, which was very simmilar to magic in its basic system, then theres even pokemon and yu-gi-oh amongst others that appear and dissapear from time to time. BUT the warhammer card game is unlike any of these, for one major reason... its made by Fantasy Flight games! WHAT? yeah, you heard me.
Fantasy Flight are a company that produces geeky board games, and are renowned for there love of lots and lots of tokens and over complicated rules, no changes here. but this is a card game, not a board game! there are no boosters, you get 4 decks that come in a box along with spare cards you can if you wish, work into these decks, and a small sub deck that at the start of the game, 10 of these cards get added randomly to your deck.
you have a capital each, so far there are 4, there is Chaos, Greenskins, Empire, and Dwarfs and their respective capitals, each capital is devided into 3 different subsections, the battlefield, the kingdom and quests. for each "power" (power is attack strength of your units(creatures) and other cards also offer power seperately) placed under the quest section allows you to draw an extra card each turn, each power under kingdom gives you more resources, these are used to play the cards, and the battle field is the only place your units can attack the opposing capitals from, you can place units in other areas to defend though.
when you attack, you choose what of the 3 areas you are attacking, and only units placed there can defend this attack, you then get a few moments to use "tactics" cards, which are like abilities, that do what they say on the card, this can be from "target unit cant attack this turn" to "destroy target building" after the attackers have chosen where to attack, and the defenders have been chosen to defend the capital, damage is delt, you MUST deal max damage to each unit before you can choose to damage a capital, if you get 8 damage on a capital, that area is "burnt" and you place a little counter on it.
the over all objective to win is to burn 2 of your opponents areas in his capital.
after spending some considerable time playing the game today, i have decided, that although this does not conform to any other card game ive played, although its made by a board game company, although its confusing at first, it has alot of potential and was quite fun when we had learnt the rules correctly.
each of the 4 races you could choose from were better at one thing or annother, the dwarfs could stick up a good defence, and when they had built up a defence, they could build a fearsome attack force. the empire had lots of cheap units that had abilitys like "pay one resourse and move from one area of the capital to annother" which is good for defence, but they also had some nice abilitys to stunt the opponents growth. Chaos... well they were about mainly strong units, they were quite powerful from the outset, and just brought out bigger and stronger creatures till you could no longer hold them off, but they also had some usefull abilities. finally, greenskins, they were good at taking down opponents "support" cards, which are cards that come into play and have some benifit without being targetable or involved in fights, quite annoying when you want to get rid of one, also the greenskins had a decently strong set of units, that became stronger if they were hurt.
all this has lead me to believe that it was well worth buying and that if they bring out future expansions, i may well go out and buy them, once you get your head around the rules, the game can be quite fun and tactical, for this i shall give it an overall 85 out of 100, its not quite perfect, but with a good expansion or two and better customizeability, this could be a game i will play for years to come. my advice is, if your into card games, and like warhammer, go buy it!
Fantasy Flight are a company that produces geeky board games, and are renowned for there love of lots and lots of tokens and over complicated rules, no changes here. but this is a card game, not a board game! there are no boosters, you get 4 decks that come in a box along with spare cards you can if you wish, work into these decks, and a small sub deck that at the start of the game, 10 of these cards get added randomly to your deck.
you have a capital each, so far there are 4, there is Chaos, Greenskins, Empire, and Dwarfs and their respective capitals, each capital is devided into 3 different subsections, the battlefield, the kingdom and quests. for each "power" (power is attack strength of your units(creatures) and other cards also offer power seperately) placed under the quest section allows you to draw an extra card each turn, each power under kingdom gives you more resources, these are used to play the cards, and the battle field is the only place your units can attack the opposing capitals from, you can place units in other areas to defend though.
when you attack, you choose what of the 3 areas you are attacking, and only units placed there can defend this attack, you then get a few moments to use "tactics" cards, which are like abilities, that do what they say on the card, this can be from "target unit cant attack this turn" to "destroy target building" after the attackers have chosen where to attack, and the defenders have been chosen to defend the capital, damage is delt, you MUST deal max damage to each unit before you can choose to damage a capital, if you get 8 damage on a capital, that area is "burnt" and you place a little counter on it.
the over all objective to win is to burn 2 of your opponents areas in his capital.
after spending some considerable time playing the game today, i have decided, that although this does not conform to any other card game ive played, although its made by a board game company, although its confusing at first, it has alot of potential and was quite fun when we had learnt the rules correctly.
each of the 4 races you could choose from were better at one thing or annother, the dwarfs could stick up a good defence, and when they had built up a defence, they could build a fearsome attack force. the empire had lots of cheap units that had abilitys like "pay one resourse and move from one area of the capital to annother" which is good for defence, but they also had some nice abilitys to stunt the opponents growth. Chaos... well they were about mainly strong units, they were quite powerful from the outset, and just brought out bigger and stronger creatures till you could no longer hold them off, but they also had some usefull abilities. finally, greenskins, they were good at taking down opponents "support" cards, which are cards that come into play and have some benifit without being targetable or involved in fights, quite annoying when you want to get rid of one, also the greenskins had a decently strong set of units, that became stronger if they were hurt.
all this has lead me to believe that it was well worth buying and that if they bring out future expansions, i may well go out and buy them, once you get your head around the rules, the game can be quite fun and tactical, for this i shall give it an overall 85 out of 100, its not quite perfect, but with a good expansion or two and better customizeability, this could be a game i will play for years to come. my advice is, if your into card games, and like warhammer, go buy it!
Saturday 17 October 2009
Poll 1: What is your favourite RP system? Results
Wow. We actually got some votes. Anyhow, whingeing aside, we got 5 votes and not 2, as I had anticipated. That is 250% expected turnout. Well done. The clear favourite of this site's population (both understandably and predictably) is the WFRP system (yay), with 4 out of 5 votes. A possibly significant minority was reflected in the 20% votes for the d20 system. And apparently, nobody likes Call of Cthulhu, the d10 Unisystem, anarchic games, or anything else.
I'm beginning to think we should have left polls till we had a decent number of readers.
Enjoy any future posts, such as they are.
I'm beginning to think we should have left polls till we had a decent number of readers.
Enjoy any future posts, such as they are.
Thursday 15 October 2009
Maybe we should explain?
Savvy and Suave have both decided that we would like to create a running story based in the world of Warhammer, we will post new chapters as and when we finish them. The chapters will stay relatively short for ease of reading and posting.
We have named the story "Wymund" for reasons which will be explained within the story. The story itself is written from the orphans point of view, but as if he is telling it to his friends much later down the line, as in, years down the line, after he has grown up. This is why its largely in first person and in past tense.
Once we have made several chapters we are hoping to catagorize them so that you can go from one to the next or find a particular chapter with ease, without searching through the whole blog.
We hope you thoroughly enjoy the story and keep coming back for more! Also, if a talented artist happens to be reading and enjoys the story, then contact us, we have need for an artist.
We have named the story "Wymund" for reasons which will be explained within the story. The story itself is written from the orphans point of view, but as if he is telling it to his friends much later down the line, as in, years down the line, after he has grown up. This is why its largely in first person and in past tense.
Once we have made several chapters we are hoping to catagorize them so that you can go from one to the next or find a particular chapter with ease, without searching through the whole blog.
We hope you thoroughly enjoy the story and keep coming back for more! Also, if a talented artist happens to be reading and enjoys the story, then contact us, we have need for an artist.
Wymund: Chapter One
Wymund
Chapter One: The Beginning
Eldgrimr trudged along the road that led up the hill. He was always several paces ahead. I remember him clearly, though we never got to spend much time together. He was very fair-skinned, hugely tall, heavyset, big-boned and big-muscled. He had a rough tunic and a pair of trousers, which he wore with a bearskin jerkin and waterproof sealskin shoes. The grey streaks in his red hair and beard were as smoke to the flaming mask they made, and all you could see were his watery, blue eyes. He held his massive battle-axe in one hand, (strictly speaking, it was a two handed battle-axe, but his bulging biceps took the weight with ease) a sword was in his belt, and a shield strapped over his back. He was a berserker, one of the crazed shock-troops from Norsca, had a strong accent and the habit of using strange expressions such as "If I don't fight soon, my blood will dry up."
It was the shield on his back that I stared at, as even with his clear ageing, he was faster than my short legs could manage. Hanging back with me was a sister of the Shallyan order. Magdalyn was her name. I don't remember her so well at that time in my life, those many seasons ago, even though she was such a presence in my life. Maybe she wasn't so striking. She was short and slim and wore her blond hair short, and had, I think, brown eyes. She carried no weapon but a stout walking staff, and wore the long white robes of her religion. She wore a golden teardrop-shaped pendant. I had only twelve summers at the time, and my legs were tiring, so she guided me along.
I myself was twelve, and short. I wore my hair not too long, and I was garbed in cheap but decent clothes, well, they were decent when I got them. They were ripped and filthy, but I didn't mind. Six years of living on the streets had made me not mind. I had no shoes or gloves on against the Brauzeit chill. You might not think it now, to look at me, but I was living off the Shallyan temple's charity at the time, and nobody donated shoes or gloves. They were too expensive not to get as much use as possible out of. At least we were walking on dirt and not irregular, hard cobbles. Anyway, I had a long dagger by my side - as good as a short sword for me - and a few worthless trinkets in my pouch. At the time, that was all I had to my name.
A motley crew we were and always had been. Magdalyn had taken me, her favourite orphan, under her personal care. She had been kicked out of the Shallyan Temple for something - I didn't know what, but I thought that it must have been bad, for she said it was lucky that she was still allowed to be part of the Church - and took me with her when she wandered the country as a friar. Eldgrimr had been wandering round the Empire for weeks, and met us in a tavern back in a small village. I can't remember why he wanted to join us, on account of the ale I had drunk. It had good ale there, I recall. I think I've worked it out since though. He was constantly reminiscing about his wife and son, who he'd not been able to protect against a Beastman attack. I think we reminded him of them.
"If I ton't fight soon, my blut vill trrry up," said Eldgrimr to nobody in particular.
"You'll get to," said Magdalyn, rolling her eyes. "Adventurers wanted, said the sign."
Adventurers, that's what they called us. The cheaply available vagabonds working as fighters and odd-job-men that were probably running from conviction in another town. We'd been variously employed as gong scrapers, hired muscle, scouts, and charged with clearing out a nest of rats. What a day that was.
We reached the crest of the hill and could see down into the little village. It was a cheerful-looking place, with well-tilled soil even in this winter. People, both townspeople and wanderers, were filing into the town hall and chattering. We relaxed slightly as we made our way down the hill. The last few people moved into the town hall, apart from a lanky person who was rushing quickly but gracefully towards the town hall as if late. Seeing the line end and the man dash, we decided we were late and started to run. As we approached, some very strange things happened.
There was a bright flash, then a shockwave of hot air which concussed us and blew us all several yards backwards to land upon our backs, and then, a loud roar. I passed out. That is all I remember.
Chapter One: The Beginning
Eldgrimr trudged along the road that led up the hill. He was always several paces ahead. I remember him clearly, though we never got to spend much time together. He was very fair-skinned, hugely tall, heavyset, big-boned and big-muscled. He had a rough tunic and a pair of trousers, which he wore with a bearskin jerkin and waterproof sealskin shoes. The grey streaks in his red hair and beard were as smoke to the flaming mask they made, and all you could see were his watery, blue eyes. He held his massive battle-axe in one hand, (strictly speaking, it was a two handed battle-axe, but his bulging biceps took the weight with ease) a sword was in his belt, and a shield strapped over his back. He was a berserker, one of the crazed shock-troops from Norsca, had a strong accent and the habit of using strange expressions such as "If I don't fight soon, my blood will dry up."
It was the shield on his back that I stared at, as even with his clear ageing, he was faster than my short legs could manage. Hanging back with me was a sister of the Shallyan order. Magdalyn was her name. I don't remember her so well at that time in my life, those many seasons ago, even though she was such a presence in my life. Maybe she wasn't so striking. She was short and slim and wore her blond hair short, and had, I think, brown eyes. She carried no weapon but a stout walking staff, and wore the long white robes of her religion. She wore a golden teardrop-shaped pendant. I had only twelve summers at the time, and my legs were tiring, so she guided me along.
I myself was twelve, and short. I wore my hair not too long, and I was garbed in cheap but decent clothes, well, they were decent when I got them. They were ripped and filthy, but I didn't mind. Six years of living on the streets had made me not mind. I had no shoes or gloves on against the Brauzeit chill. You might not think it now, to look at me, but I was living off the Shallyan temple's charity at the time, and nobody donated shoes or gloves. They were too expensive not to get as much use as possible out of. At least we were walking on dirt and not irregular, hard cobbles. Anyway, I had a long dagger by my side - as good as a short sword for me - and a few worthless trinkets in my pouch. At the time, that was all I had to my name.
A motley crew we were and always had been. Magdalyn had taken me, her favourite orphan, under her personal care. She had been kicked out of the Shallyan Temple for something - I didn't know what, but I thought that it must have been bad, for she said it was lucky that she was still allowed to be part of the Church - and took me with her when she wandered the country as a friar. Eldgrimr had been wandering round the Empire for weeks, and met us in a tavern back in a small village. I can't remember why he wanted to join us, on account of the ale I had drunk. It had good ale there, I recall. I think I've worked it out since though. He was constantly reminiscing about his wife and son, who he'd not been able to protect against a Beastman attack. I think we reminded him of them.
"If I ton't fight soon, my blut vill trrry up," said Eldgrimr to nobody in particular.
"You'll get to," said Magdalyn, rolling her eyes. "Adventurers wanted, said the sign."
Adventurers, that's what they called us. The cheaply available vagabonds working as fighters and odd-job-men that were probably running from conviction in another town. We'd been variously employed as gong scrapers, hired muscle, scouts, and charged with clearing out a nest of rats. What a day that was.
We reached the crest of the hill and could see down into the little village. It was a cheerful-looking place, with well-tilled soil even in this winter. People, both townspeople and wanderers, were filing into the town hall and chattering. We relaxed slightly as we made our way down the hill. The last few people moved into the town hall, apart from a lanky person who was rushing quickly but gracefully towards the town hall as if late. Seeing the line end and the man dash, we decided we were late and started to run. As we approached, some very strange things happened.
There was a bright flash, then a shockwave of hot air which concussed us and blew us all several yards backwards to land upon our backs, and then, a loud roar. I passed out. That is all I remember.
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