As i was turning the corner from the hallway that led to my father’s office someone walked straight into me and knocking me over. 

It was a women who knocked me over. She was around 5’5, with shoulder length Purple hair. She seemed somewhere in her mid twenties to early thirties. She was dressed similar to what one would think of as a stereotypical gypsi or fortune teller.

???: oh, no! I’m so sorry I must apologise I was trying to head to the Duke’s office.

She offered her hand to help  me me up.

John: it’s fine it was an accident.

As I grabbed her hand to help get up suddenly her and the room around me disappeared.

I now found myself laying on the ground staring up at a red sky filled with acrid black smoke. I could hear roaring explosions, machine gunfire and rifle fire in the background. I seemed to be laying in a puddle of muddy water mixed with blood. To my right there was a corpse of a half-elf female with the right side of her face blown off. To my left was a similar sight, the corpse of a human male with 12 arrows protruding from his chest. Both of them were wearing a similar uniforms that resembled a US army uniform from WW1. As I look at myself I find that I am wearing the exact same uniform as the corpses. I find myself holding a Colt 1911 in my right hand. Suddenly l hear a huge explosion as dirt and mud fly through the air as what seems to be artillery fire makes a crater a few feet to my right. My ears stop ringing and my vision clears back up from the explosion as a black armoured knight walks up and stares down at me and begins to raise his sword to cut me down where I lay.

                  ***

 

I wake up to find myself in my room with a note right next to me on my nightstand. It reads…

Dear, Prince John Wyrmblood, son of Duke Wyrmblood,

I apologise for knocking you over when we walked into each other. I must also apologise for accidentally granting you a vision. I am Serina the Oracle of the Holy Church of Shadows and my ability to show people a vision of the future is unpredictable and wild at its best. So I once again must apologise for not being more careful. I will wear gloves from here on out.

Sincerely,                                        
Selina  the Oracle

So that’s what happened? I think as I pondered the implications of the vision I saw.

                ***

The next morning…

I was so excited as we (me and patty) got on to the carriage to go to the nearby city of  Glaivis for the start of my first platoon. When we had arrived at the gates of the walled city we were greeted and ushered into the city by the city guards in their shiny chain mail. Which leads to the present as we have arrived at our first destination, a blacksmith shop ran by a freed dwarf. As I approached the shop i noticed that there was no ringing of a hammer and anvil. I then decided to enter the shop and was shocked by how run down it was. I mean yeah it’s a blacksmith shop on the edge of the slums but man this was disgusting. There wasn’t even a dirt floor it was all mud. There was a giant hole in the roof and all of the equipment was rusty and falling apart, and there was a giant puddle of water in the centre of the room. After a minute of looking around I found the dwarf sleeping on the ground up against the anvil. As I approach him he suddenly wakes up.

Dwarf: huh?! Oh a customer! Haven’t had one of those in a long time. My names Dimitri, What can I do for you my lord?

He must have noticed the quality of my clothes.

John: my names John. You wouldn’t have any information about the hand cannons that the Last Great Dwarvan Empire used would you? 

Dimitri: what do you want with those my lord? 

John: for a major project of mine. So do you know the secret on how to make them?

Dimitri: I do. You want me to make you one? I don’t know why you would want one though magic is more effective. 

John: no I don’t want you to make me one. Take a look at this. 

I hand him some blueprints i had made that had simple instructions on how to to make a black powder rifle (I’m skipping muskets because they’re too inaccurate). 

Dimitri:*muttering* interesting. This could work.

John: so what do you think?

Dimitri: it could work. But I don’t have the equipment or supplies to make it work. 

John: that’s why I want to full on hire you to come work at my military base to provide me with these weapons. You’ll have all the supplies that you need.

Dimitri: I would love to but I can’t go anywhere because I’m have unfortunately reached the end of my life. I won’t live to see next month. But if you promise to take good care of her and will treat he like a person and not a slave, i will send my daughter with you. She’ll know how to make stuff like this. You just take good care of her now. She’s around your age in dwarven years.

John: I will take good care of her for you. And I wish you a good afterlife. I don’t believe in the two great churches teachings.

Dimitri: Clara!! Come here!!

Suddenly a teenage female Dwarf enters the room. She has brown hair tied into a Viking braid, green eyes, and no beard (not all female dwarves grow beards) she is wearing some goggles, overalls, and leather gloves.

Clara: yes, pa.

Dimitri: I’m dying soon, you know this. I don’t want to be homeless in this country where you can be picked up as a slave. So I am sending you with this fine young man to work for him. 

Clara: pa, no! I don’t want to leave you! Besides he could just be taking me as a slave anyway. 

John: I swear upon my soul that I mean you no ill will. You will be treated as an equal citizen. I don’t believe in the teachings of two great churches. You will paid for the services that you can provide.

Dimitri: *on the verge of tears* go with him. Please. For me.

Clara: *crying* fine I’ll go with him but I’ll miss you.

Dimitri: I’ll miss you too.

 After she packed I gave her some silver to buy the equipment and supplies she needs to make the rifles and the address for the base. And then I went off to get my 44 (I managed to convince my dad for 4 extra men) recruits.

***

Now for my 2nd stop, the Slave house. Yeah yeah I know slavery is bad but that’s why I’m here so that I can free some of these people and give them a home and work.

Patty: Master John are you sure you want to recruit from a place like this?

John: yes I’m sure.

Patty: alright if you say so.

upon entering this place of corruption and evil my senses are immediately assaulted with the smell of blood, feces, sickness,and decay. I wanted to vomit but I had to force myself to swallow it back down. As me and patty (and my 2 guards)walked out of the entrance we found ourselves in an arena surrounded with rusty cages packed and overflowing with slaves of various species(races?), ages, and genders. There were Elves, Dragonborn, Half-elves, Lizard-folk, Raven-folk, Beast-kin, and Dwarves all chained up and caged like animals.

As I was mentally recoiling in disgust and rage we were approached by what I can only describe as the most vile and disgusting human being I have ever seen. He was around 5’6, disgustingly fat, and balding. His face was caked with makeup and he smelled like sweat and cheap perfume. The smile he gave us was sickly sweet, so much so it was sickening. Overall he gave off the vibe of a very sick and twisted man, not that I’d call him a man. He was someone who I really wish I could go all John Wick on. 

Slaver: Greetings my young Lord! How may I be of service today? We have many different types of slaves here from manual labor to pleasure and play. Would you perhaps be interested in bed companion ? I just got finished with one now and it was exquisite.

Patty frowned at the slaver. 

Patty: he is much too young for that!

Slaver: it’s never too early start enjoying the pleasures in life.

John: I’m not interested in your sex slaves. I’m looking for potential soldiers.

Slaver: Soldiers?! Now why would you want arm a bunch of slaves? They might rebel. They’re savages and animals.

John: My reasons are my own. Now I’m looking for 44 potential soldiers with low to nonexistent magic capabilities(those with healing magic are the exception), ages 14-20 years, male and female. Now either you get me what I’m looking for or we’ll take our business elsewhere.

Slaver: O~ok, whatever you wish my lord. 

The Slaver then proceeded to give his guards instructions on what to look for.

Within 20 minutes they have a row of 80 slaves all lined up. As I walk down the line I interview and examine each individual. By the time I had 15 people already picked I came across someone who stood out to me. She was a 15 year old dark-elf. An uncommon species in this part of the world but that’s not what stood out to me. She emitted a fiery aura of anger and confidence. She was well toned and her eyes were like blood and flame. 

John: What’s your name?

Dark-Elf: It’s Ash.

John: hello Ash my name is John. Would you like to leave this place.

Ash: of course I would but I won’t be your fucking slave.

She then proceeded to spit on my shirt. The slaver saw this and boiled with rage and pulled a whip off of his belt.

Slaver: That’s it for you bitch! 100 lashings!! maybe then you’ll learn how to talk to your betters!

As he was about to strike her in the face I used a hand signal to order my body guards to stop him. They immediately took action and yanked him onto his back and pointed their spears at his enormous gut.

Slaver: W…w…what?

John: you will not injure my troops or I will have you flogged and killed.

Slaver: Y~yes my lord.

as he got up I turned my attention back to Ash.

John: I’m not looking for slaves I’m looking for soldiers. You will be granted your freedom upon enlistment. Do you wish to enlist?

Now with a hint of admiration in her eyes she answers.

Ash: I’ll enlist.

John: great! Now go stand over there with the other recruits.

as I proceeded to recruit 20 more I meet 2 more interesting individuals. A male Dragonborn and a female Ravenborn. (Ravenborn are extremely rare in this part of the world due to the fact that magistrae used to be a Ravenborn kingdom until they were nearly destroyed over 1000 centuries ago.) Both are 15 years old. The Dragonborn’s name is Skarn and the Ravenborn’s name is Ravyn. They both are apparently half-siblings sharing the same father, who happens to have been a low ranking count in the eastern region of Magistrae. They both seem to Jokesters and are both very eager to enlist.

after I recruited everyone that I needed I had them load up into a troop carrier wagon that would take them to the mountain fortress that they would soon learn to call home. Now all that we had to do was recruit our drill instructors.