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Fiction The Bounty

Discussion in 'Fluff and Stories' started by Bowser, Jun 4, 2016.

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  1. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    A sudden clamour in the jungle had woken up Ti’Rakz. “I am never drinking with Dwarfs again.” He said to himself as he checked his surroundings. He looked around, hoping to see his dwarf friends, they were nowhere in sight. Something in the jungle was making a lot of noise. He figured he could ignore that for now, even if it was the beastmen he had been tracking. The only cure for this kind of drinking headache would be food, and a lot of it. Ti’Rakz got on to his belly and crawled as quietly as he could toward the stream. There it was, standing before him, a gorgeous white stag, gently lapping up water from the stream. The legendary beauty of this majestic beast, thought to be a myth. Sighting one is said by humans to be a sign that they are favoured by their god to become the next king or emperor of the lands.
    The Saurus slowly crawled closer, and then pounced. His teeth sank into the leg of his prey. The Stag attempted to buck, but it was too late, Ti’Rakz had toppled the stag onto its back. The mighty saurus sank his teeth into his meal and greedily began to eat. The legends of other races make for a satisfying meal.

    Ti’Rakz followed the noise and destruction. He couldn’t tell if it was caused by his dwarf friends, or if it was the beastmen he was planning on tracking down and slaughtering. That’s the problem with parties, when done right they cause a lot of damage to the area and reputations of all involved. Which made it hard to discern the difference between the aftermath of a party and the everyday typical habits of a herd of beastmen.

    Ti’Rakz got closer to the noise, he peered through the foliage at the cause of the commotion. In the clearing was a battalion of daemons, led by a bigger daemon on a chariot. “Bloodletters?” He said, caring little if they heard him. The Oldblood pushed the foliage out of his way, and walked right up to the Herald sitting on his chariot.

    “Just you or did you bring more?” Asked Ti’Rakz.

    “The question is, where is the rest of your friends?” The daemon shot back, with an evil grimace on his face.

    Ti’Rakz swiftly drew his weapon and beheaded the grimacing daemon.

    “My friends are right here. I am your leader now, who wants to get some killing done?”

    The bloodhunter lunged at Ti’Rakz, Hell blade at the ready. Ti’Rakz caved his skull in with one blow.

    “Anybody else? Or would the rest of you care to get some blood and skulls today?”

    The daemons laughed and grinned to each other.

    "Drag me around in that chariot. But keep behind that lot, they look quite rowdy and ready to stab a back or two."

    A few of the bloodletters began to giggle maniacally.

    -------------------------------------------

    Skink Priest Eli-Nezs put on his long black robes, holstered his pistols, and put on his witch hunter hat. These were rather unorthodox priestly trappings. He couldn’t control the winds of magic, instead he chose to control the magic of technology. The pistols, his trusty dual duelling wands. He had named them. Twitch and The Duke. His weapons, his friends, his technology magic. He remembered his Trials, which seemed like a lifetime ago now.

    The Trials had been long and hard. The young skink was thirsty and starving, and he was certain that he would be the meal for those carrion beetles. That was until he saw it in the distance. Hope. The skink ran as fast as his exhausted legs could carry him to the remnants of a bloody mess of a battle that had been fought by humans and dwarfs. The young skink had found all that he had needed to survive the Trials. He had found his magic. Twin pistols, Twitch and The Duke. It was not easy burying crates of ammunition and subtly marking them for later, but with a couple of bandoliers strapped around him, he had enough ammo to get him home. Hunting and scaring off predators became much easier with his new found technology. His magic. While this was, of course, highly contested by the skink priests, High priest Kar-Linn, was amused by this. The High Priest had warned the other priests of the dangers of questioning the will of the old ones.

    Priest Eli-Nesz had his orders, which were disappointing, but nevertheless his duty. He was less a traditional priest, and moreof a bounty hunter of sorts, in that he was basically just a bounty hunter. Not that he minded, priest work was a lot of bureaucracy, bluffing, posturing, negotiating and rituals, bounty hunting was like that, but far less formal and far more chance to use his “magic.” He knew his target well. It was Oldblood Ti’Rakz, again. Once again Eli-Nesz would bring Ti’Rakz back on regiment abandonment charges. It wasn’t exactly normal priest work, but it was at least interesting.

    Priest Eli-Nesz and his troops had been hot on the trail of the errant saurus. Dwarven pipes and tankards, carrion beetles feeding off of mammal carcasses. At least Ti’Rakz was courteous enough to allow himself to be easy to follow. The problem of course was the Dwarven pipes and tankards, that possibly meant that he had allied himself with dwarfs, who likely would outgun Eli-Nesz’ own troops. He had since invented some “magic” of his own, but his main “spell” was still shoot it until it is dead, which the dwarfs invented. They would be much more powerful in that type of “spell."

    ----------------------------------------

    Ti’Rakz stuck his forked tongue out to taste the air. The tongue retreated back into his mouth and as the forks of his tongue touched the roof of his mouth. He could sense that they were not too far from the beastmen encampment.

    “Does anyone here speak sheepish?”

    One of the bloodletters raised its hand. I do, but very bah-ah-ah-ah-dly.” It giggled.

    This was met with a mix of laughs and groans.

    “Sounds right to me. Go up ahead and get them to follow you back here. We have company.” Ti’Rakz pointed to where the beastmen would be.

    The bloodletter ran off towards the beastmen, braying and bleating as he ran. Ti’Rakz dismounted his chariot, he had his weapon at the ready. Priest Eli-Nesz strutted into the clearing, he tipped his hat to the prodigal saurus.

    “Ti’Rakz, you smell like a brewery. So you’re working with chaos daemons now? I am unbelievably disgusted with you. How could you work with this vile scum?”

    “This mission is incredibly dangerous, you should probably go play with the other priests. Besides, why waste good saurus, when I can sacrifice enemies to enemies and clean up what’s left.”

    The bloodletters started cheering before the realization slowly dawned on them. The assembled battalion of daemons turned to look at the Oldblood.

    “Not you, you guys are party animals, I was talking about the dwarfs that I brought.” Ti’Rakz said to his impromptu troops.

    “My Brothersss! Form up around me, Chaossss Beastssss will ssssoon be upon ussss.” Ti’Rakz shouted in Dwarven, with a thick Saurian accent. The sound of hundreds of pistols being cocked followed.

    “Seems I have you surrounded Eli-Nesz.” Smirked the Oldblood.

    ---------------------------------------------

    “Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah.” Brayed the Beastlord. “Yes my immortal frie-eh-eh-eh-nd, we will help you kill the lizards.”

    The herd started bleating and shouting with excitement.

    The bloodletter let out a maniacal cackle. “I don’t think they reproduce that way, but you can cut your own holes.”

    The beastmen came stampeding into the clearing destroying what they could along the way. They stopped and looked around, these were dwarfs not lizards.

    “Why did you betray-ay-ay-ay us? These are dwarfs, we kno-o-o-ow where their fun bits are.” The Beastlord said.

    The bloodletters and beastmen shared a laugh over this statement.

    The dwarves did not know or care what these beasties were laughing at. The chameleon skinks hiding in the trees likewise did not know or care what the abominations were laughing at. Dwarves and chameleons opened fire on the beasts and bloodletters.

    Ti’Rakz decided to get out of the line of fire, Eli-Nesz watched his every move from a safe position.

    “Don’t think you’re getting away from me” Shouted the technology priest.

    “I was just going to invite you and your hidden friends to the Dwarven after party.” Ti’Rakz shouted back, and raised his hand in the air.

    “I think we should all skip the party, and you should come back with me, to your proper regiment.”

    “I think we should go to the party, skip the disciplinary hearing that is awaiting me and go on an adventure. I hear there is some rat creatures that need to be destroyed a few days from here.”

    “I thought you might say that, and I just wanted to let you know that my orders didn’t specifically say to bring you in alive.” Eli-Nesz pulled out a small egg shaped metallic device. “Do you know what spell I have prepared?”

    “Well since you aren’t aiming your boom wand carefully, and fumbling it in your claws, I am going to make a guess. Is that the Blot Toad Stink device in your hand there?”

    “Correct, can you guess which other troops I brought with me?”

    “It would be a shame if I have a dwarf sharpshooter, waiting on me to signal by putting down my arm.”

    The skink looked at the saurus’ raised arm, and slowly put the grenade back into its pouch.

    “You’re bluffing, why would you ally yourself with lesser races over your own?”

    “If you thought I was bluffing you would still have your spell prepared. It’s not so much an alliance, as I lead them to each other and let the problems deal with themselves. Besides that, have you ever tried Dwarven ale?”

    “We are at a bit of a standstill it would seem.”

    “It would seem that way, I’ll tell you what, do you see that big beastman? If you can kill him with one shot, I will come back with you.”

    “That’s a fair deal.” The priest drew his pistol from the holster. He took aim and cocked the gun. The priest took his time with his aim, he had time, he needed to do it right the first time. His claw on the trigger, with a silent prayer, he gently squeezed it. The pistol emitted a loud boom and the bullet explodedforth from the barrel. The bullet struck the Beastlord directly in the head, the exit wound splattered brains and gore onto the corpses littered around the abominable beast.

    "Best two out of three?" Asked Ti'Rakz

    "There's nothing left to shoot but thedwarves." Replied Eli-Nesz

    "Marlecht! Alright let's go."

    Lord Khan’Man looked over his battlefield. Everything had, of course, gone according to plan. “I told you this was a solid plan Lord Roob. Pay up.”

    “I don’t think you are remembering them right. I don’t remember there being a skink priest that couldn’t use the winds of magic. The Trials most certainly would not have gone the way you described. You cheated.” Replied the magnificent Lord Roob, reluctant to give up his increasingly rare Ixti grubs.

    “We did not stipulate that my memories had to be the same as yours. We only said that I had one Oldblood, one skink priest, and a unit of chameleons to take out the beastmen and the bloodletters in this area.” Said Lord Khan’Man almost smiling.

    “Marlecht!” Replied Lord Roob, handing over the Ixti grubs.
     
  2. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    Author Notes:
    The working title for The Bounty was Cosmic Relief.
    The original concept was that the Slann were competing, each got to choose one unit. They were going to be a reference to another author here and would be arguing over which was better.
    "Skinks"
    "Saurus"
    And so on.
    So they each get one troop type, and then they get to choose the other's handicap.

    So Bob chooses an old blood, Joe chooses a skink priest.

    The priest's handicap is that he can't use magic, the old blood's handicap is that he has the personality of a college aged human.

    They make it work. The perspective alternates between the skink and the saurus.

    For the record, Saurus all the way!

    Then I came up with the bright idea to make it both old world and AOS. So I changed the beginning and the end to make it a bet. The points in the story did not change too much after that. I wanted to stop the story and make it a stop here if you want to keep it in th old world keep going if you want the AOS ending.

    As with all of my activity here this was written on my mobile, so editing is always kind of a pain. Sorry Scalenex!

    Then I sent it off to Scalenex who told me to stop with the changing perspectives and just make it an AOS Story. I can't remember exactly what he said but I am pretty sure it is along the lines of AOS is better in every way. You are the best at writing AOS. My hero.

    I wisely took his advice, but did not clean up the story the way I needed to to. I just copy and pasted the paragraphs so the saurus parts were together and the skink parts were together, until they met up.
    This is the problem with working 75-100 hours a week between two jobs. While researching business licensing, taxes, laws and other good stuff you should know before going for some new goals.

    You just kind of say good enough with these little side projects and hope for the best. When you get more time, you clean it up a bit and add to or subtract what you need to.

    The name Ti’Rakz was a play on T. Rex and Tracks, both because he tracks his own prey, but leaves pretty easy ones to follow.

    Eli-Nesz is a play on Elliot Ness, just gave him a more old west name like Eli.

    I added in the chameleon skinks and that when I changed it from a duel to a wager, to give Eli-Nesz a bit more of a presence. Sure he had guns and grenades, but Ti’Rakz had just mercilessly slaughtered some bloodletters, so I wanted to show that Eli-Nesz had a better chance of taking him down.

    The bloodletters, beastmen, and Dwarves were all there from the start, but the beastmen were just as much shadows as the dwarves. In the background, but not speaking, just noise to add to the tension. Then decided to have some more fun with them.

    I wanted something light hearted as dark and brooding antiheroes just didn't appeal to me. Have seen it done to death since 1989. So I went with a not quite spaghetti western, which probably would have worked better with more space, and cutting out some of the unnecessary extras, like eating the stag. But you know how it is. Wanted to show him being more like a college aged human. Which didn't matter after I changed the beginning! So when this gets rewritten there will actually be quite a few changes, or I may make it into a serial instead.
     
  3. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    Just reposting this here for completion sake.
     
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  4. Huanchi
    Cold One

    Huanchi Active Member

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    GG dude. I like the way you represent the Lizzies/Seraphon mindset.
     
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  5. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    Yeah, this one was quite a bit of fun to write, I have a few different takes on the Seraphon lore. They gave us a blank slate to work with, so I am running with it.
     
  6. Fhanados
    Terradon

    Fhanados Well-Known Member

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    The concept of Slann making a bet then using their prodigious powers to create artificial memories and bring it to life is a really cool idea!

    Also, you work a LOT of hours. Like, way more than sane people. Kudos for keeping up with the hobby, you put my efforts to shame!
     
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