[WFRP] The Lord of Lost Heart (II)

[LCP]

Pieter

“Not sure if 'left behind' is right,” said Ricard. “At least, until today,” he reflected. “Gods, I wouldn't want to try to ride back now. Not with him out there.”

“I was always planning to go back to the city, though. That was the point. Mary a girl from a good family, get father to loosen the old purse-strings again. Third son, you see. Convinced himself I was amounting to nothing, told me I could make my own way until I made something of myself.” He shook his head. “Joined the cavalry, but... well, the army wasn't the boy for me.” He gave an uneasy laugh. “All fun and games until there's an actual war, you know?”

“We were stationed near here, before the Driving. All the lads were saying the Northers'd never make it through Kislev. Matter of history. Used to come down to the village, waiting to hear that the war was over. I'd met Esther a couple of times before, but it was then that things really took off, you know? Thought I had it in the bag, as far pleasing the old man was concerned – a commission with the pistoliers, and a wedding to a Verloren. I mean, how much more respectable can you be?” He smiled wrily at the memory. “I remember there was another chap, dead set on her. Decent sort of fellow, but terribly sincere, you know? The kind of fellow who'll just stare politely at the funniest jokes. All of us army types passing through, must have been the most excitement this old place had seen in a century.”

“Of course, then the word came through that the Northers were burning down through Ostland, and the Kislevites were all dead, or cowards, or traitors, and suddenly we were off north.” He seemed to have strayed onto an uncomfortable subject; he awkwardly changed it. “And then the poor old girl got sick, and suddenly things didn't look so respectable after all.” There was a long pause. “Unfortunately, my father and I didn't exactly see eye to eye on that count. So here I am again, throwing myself on the mercy of someone else's.”

He stretched, a little stiff from keeping watch.

“I suppose it all sounds terribly strange to you, eh, Hagen?” he said, with a certain morose air. “Things're simpler for you fellows.”

OOC:

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The Spring Driving was the first stage of Archaon's invasion, when the combined armies assembled to stop him on the Kislevite steppe were swiftly and unexpectedly routed. The forces of Chaos then advanced into the Empire much faster than had been anticipated, passing through Kislev without laying siege to the capital.

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1

Lothar

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Running as fast as his legs would carry him, Lothar scrambled up the steep slope on his right, pebbles cascading back downhill under his flying feet. Hanging a sharp right at the top of the slope, he dashed for the nearest tree, zig-zagging to throw the creature off his trail.

Squealing like an angry Skaven, the boar came ploughing up the gravelly slope, hair bristling on its back. Slewing to a halt, it made a skidding turn, lowering its scarred head so that its longest tusks pointed straight at Lothar's legs. Breaking from behind the sapling he had already reached, Lothar raced for the ancient oak that overshadowed it, leaping to catch hold of its lowest-hanging branches.

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Strength test to climb: (1d100)[32]

Success, with one full degree of success too! Lothar climbs just out of the boar's reach.

Feeling the coarse bark smack against his palms, Lothar gripped on as hard as he could. Straining every muscle in his body, he swung himself up into the twisted branches, pulling his dangling legs up just in time to avoid the grunting beast that came cannoning into the trunk of the tree below him.

Straightening up, he clambered a few steps higher, just to be sure. Down on the forest floor below, the huge boar squealed and growled in displeasure, circling the bottom of the tree with its red, piggy eyes upraised. Where the thick roots made a ramp, it tried a walk a little way up the trunk, but Lothar was safely out of reach.