The chase lasted for eight days of hard, tiring marches during which the Hunters only slept enough to replenish their stamina and rest their muscles before they stood before an incredibly old, dense and dark forest. The air inside was weirdly warm and humid, carrying a pungent smell similar to pus and open sores. No snow lay on the forest’s trees and the inside seemed pitch black from the sunny outside.
Erik did not continue their stubborn chase and instead set up camp for an entire day.
“This place reeks of Beastman, so their Herdstone MUST be within. They may have run away from us, but they will never abandon their Herdstone so whether we charge in now or a while later makes no difference to them.
Meanwhile, we will take this chance to rest well and enjoy a sumptuous meal to carry us through our coming attack.”
What Erik didn’t tell them was that he was only this sure because a notification popped up, informing him of the ‘Beastman-forest’ before him. It quite literally said that the abominable presence of Beastmen had corrupted the ancient groves and that a Herdstone stood within, drawing the Beastmen towards it.
‘Let’s just hope we can settle this fast so we can be back at our camp before the final blizzard hits…’
This was Erik’s biggest worry, since it had been a long time since the second blizzard and he had no idea if there was a pattern to the deadly storms. For all he knew, every night they camped outside they risked the blizzard swooping in and freezing them all to death overnight.
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The next day the Marauders carefully moved into the twilight of the forest, keeping a careful eye out for Beastman ambushes.
The column, spearheaded by Erik and Wulfrik, travelled surprisingly fast despite the incredibly dense overgrowth of bristled bushes, branches and saplings. A clear path was laid out before them that still had day-old tracks on it, meandering past the dreary trees.
It was quiet. Eerily, unnaturally quiet. No scurrying of small forest life could be heard, nor the tweeting of birds. It was entirely silent except for the creepy creaking and groaning of the lightly swaying trees.
‘Why are the trees swaying? I feel no wind blowing here!’ – Erik discovered to his dismay that the forest might be more than ‘just’ creepy and inhabited by Beastmen. Now he suddenly had the nagging suspicion the forest was somehow alive, as if it had some kind of twisted form of consciousness that rejected his and his men’s presence beneath its ancient branches.
Repressing a shudder, Erik doggedly led his men forward. Determined to find the escaped Beastmen, kill them all and raze their foul Herdstone to the ground.
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After walking deep into the forest for what felt like an eternity, the permanent twilight playing tricks on their sense of time, Erik and his men finally approached a large clearing.
Though, ‘clearing’ was putting it nicely since it was just a large area beneath the trees where the underbrush was largely cleared out and there was more space between the enormous warped trees.
The clearing was filled with makeshift tents, scattered food scraps and other trash. In the middle of the area, underneath the largest tree that reminded Erik of an African Baobab-tree, stood a huge formation of standing stones.
Five huge monoliths, some of which had large, circular holes near the top made up the Herdstone. Each stone was decorated in a grisly fashion with strings of bloodied skulls, dried guts and other viscera.
In particular, the two largest stones stood out. One was entirely painted red in fresh blood with a mountain of skulls stacked at the bottom. The other was covered in phallic graffiti, huge smears of yellowish crusts and a number of captured women were chained at its bottom amidst a pile of horribly misshapen stillborn being devoured by their healthy siblings.
‘Those must be where the Khorngor and Slaangor make their sacrifices and obtain their power from.’
“Yes, let’s burn those things to the ground. No, not just burn, but break those rocks into pieces. Don’t ever let another Beastman set foot in these parts ever again.”
The logical conclusion as to the origin of those human women chained at the Altar to Slaanesh was that the Beastmen must have attacked small Norscan tribes or travellers. This meant that those women were Norscans and this insult to their kinsmen poured oil on the already roaring inferno that was the Frost Wolves and Sarls’ rage.
“Hold! No reckless, headlong charge just yet men! We’ll get them don’t worry, but let’s not run into a potential trap so close to success!” – Erik cautioned his almost berserk troops.
Rage clear on his own face as well, Erik nonetheless carefully scanned the Beastmen settlement in front of him.
They had obviously left defenders, so there were now roughly 500 Beastmen warriors ready for their last stand.
‘Not like they know it’s their last stand. They are probably expecting to turn this around in their favour, but they are sorely mistaken…’
With the advantage of their strong defences, the Marauders had inflicted more than ten times the casualties they received. And while those odds wouldn’t be replicated in a field battle, Erik believed he had taken the Beastmen’s measure. He was confident in wiping out the 500 last Beastmen warriors with his superior warriors.
Having made sure there were no nasty surprises waiting for them, Erik motioned for the Norscans to advance.
Erik, Wulfrik and their Elites formed a spearhead while the regular Marauders spread out beside them with their shields locked together and javelins at the ready.
The Beastmen quickly reacted to the appearance of a strong enemy and their warriors scrambled towards them.
But before the lines of warriors were in charging distance, both sides paused like it was planned. And with slight amusement in his eyes, Erik watched the Khorngor and Slaangor march out into the no-man’s-land where they soon started braying in their bestial tongue.
Challenge! It’s a challenge! They’re challenging you! This is outrageous, kill them both quick! Prove to Khorne and Slaanesh these two are unworthy! Slay them, sacrifice them and take their powers!
‘Great, the voices are especially loud today it seems…’ – Erik’s amusement quickly turned into annoyance.
Seeing no reaction from the Norscans, the Slaangor then switched to a language they understood and likely repeated their earlier words:
“Hriig! Humans! All child Chaos! Grnk! Demand fight, us-you. Boss fight boss! Feel Mark, more Mark! Among you, Mark-boss fight us Mark-boss. Winner take loser-boss Mark! Blehehihi!”
Turning towards Wulfrik, Erik nodded in the direction of the two challengers.
“Want to take them up on that? It’s the best chance you’ll get at killing that Khorngor personally.”
Before answering, Wulfrik grunted as he stared intently at the Khorngor before him.
“Do you even need to ask? This is what I’ve been waiting all this time for. I would make nice drinking cups out of its horns, but I wouldn’t want to spoil my drink so instead I’ll just fashion a nice trophy out of its skull. If I don’t crush it to pieces first. Let’s go! Like we agreed, I get my prey and you take the Slaangor. Kill them quick, then we charge the rest of them and slaughter the lot.”
Nodding, Erik repeated the impromptu plan for the rest of the warriors to hear:
“Wulfrik and I will deal with the Beastmen’s leaders. When we’ve killed them both, charge and begin the slaughter! The coloured stones over there, despite their foulness, are still a nexus for Khorne and Slaanesh so any kills we make will be directly observed by our Gods!”
Internally, Erik then thought of a bugging question: ‘Will destroying those Altars anger the Gods? It is only normal for human and Beastman to kill each other, despite us being essentially on the ‘same side’, but does this extend to defiling the other sides’ Altars?’
Pushing that though to the back of his mind, Erik loosened his shoulders as he quickly checked his weapons. The Greatsword was sharp and heavy as ever while the Messer hung snugly at his side, ready to take the life of his foes.
Then, together with Wulfrik, Erik stepped out of the Norscan ranks and approached the opposing Beastmen leaders.
Wulfrik challenged the Khorngor with his gaze while Erik dramatically raised and pointed his sword at the Slaangor.
Both Beastmen snorted, accepting the offered order of challenge, and both sides raised their weapons for the ensuing duels.
Well, first of all I'm loving it.
Second, although the length does not bother me at the level of leaving it, I would like 2000 characters, but because of how good the story is I can let it pass, on the other hand the chapters are well finished, because they leave you wanting more.
THIRD BUT EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Explain what you mean by skipping minor events, what minor events do you mean? Prove it with an example from your own story, it is important because the minor events are what give life to the stories, if you skip them you can ruin the experience by ruining the rhythm.
This is a common problem in fandom authors, because well, they are fans who want to reach the events, but remember that you are creating your own story, you are not reciting the Warhammer wiki, if not the stories become: looting Bretonnia, I bring me a woman and I tame her, I loot the empire, I bring me a woman and I tame her, I take out Kislev and you meet Katarin, Katarin freezes me, F.
Well, not that last, but I do want him to fight Katarin sometime, or have s*x with her, preferably both.
But remember, don't take out things like when I kill the old slave, if that's what you mean by minor events.
And I repeat, what do you consider minor events?
I definitely wouldn't skip over every minor event and hop from main event to main event. What I want to prevent is writing filler. I want the minor events to transition into plot-relevant events that can have some consequence later down the line.
For example, killing thralls for the XP-boost was something I described once and then just mentioned Erik continuing to do it. It's got a good reason but might it have some sort of implication on his changing state of mind? If he's perfectly able to commit mass-murder on non-resisting targets, what would be the next step?
Another 'minor' event would be smut. I could just fade to black, but I think its important that each character at least gets a decently described scene of intimacy. Otherwise it really will become a "catch 'em all" scenario.
Hope this gives a bit of insight from my side. +, hehe, you guys don't know what I cut or added muahahaha
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@Macrendil-Ysmir
@Macrendil-Ysmir That is exactly the right way to go imo. As long as you mention he is still doing it, then it is fine. What gets me are stories where they mention he decided to do something or should make a habit of it, but then NEVER reference it again... So you don't know if it is happening or not. Absolutely skip repetitive/mindless/daily events. You don't need to narrate every meal, you can just say he had breakfast... If something important was said there mention that so and so told him something over breakfast... Unless the actual meal or conversation adds to the story.
You aren't writing a slice-of-life, you are writing an epic!
@Blizzisme Becomes relevant a bit later, but this is also the case for each years 1st Raid. Its a resource grab, meant for gathering a LOT of food, new thralls and iron. Important to describe in detail once, but afterwards the focus will be on the events of 2nd/3rd raids of each year (+some stuff in the Winters) where Erik will sail the world to do interesting/plot relevant stuff.