Onslaught & the Vadeli Part 2

From: martin <102541.3423_at_CompuServe.COM>
Date: 16 Aug 96 14:34:36 EDT


Onslaught & the Vadeli Part 2

        A man was running at tremendous speed down the Jetty. He was being pursued by a small army of City Guardsmen and some of the Matriarchs elite Sword Guard as well as a handful of Axe Sisters. There must have been thirty of them and they sealed the end of the Jetty and moved after the man. They seemed outraged and angered beyond measure and the object of their anger was rapidly closing on the end of the jetty.

        The man kept running and as he got closer Renna could make out more details. He was a big, very big man. Big and heavily armoured in iron, some kind of platemail, she'd seen the type before from visiting Trader Knights from Nochet. He was covered in weapons but ran as if he were naked.

        Captain Odrough materialised silently beside her which gave her a start. "Looks like a fugitive from the law to me, where does he thinks he's going?" He muttered. "He'll run out of jetty in a moment."

        It soon became apparent where he was going for as the man reached the end of the Jetty he leapt into the air like a cork being shot from a bottle. It was an impossible jump and Renna felt the stir of magic in the air, powerful magic. She was less concerned about that than the fact that the armoured man was curving through the air to land on the deck of the Norramor, almost exactly where she and Odrough were standing.

"Wahcazas Balls!" Yelled Odrough in realisation as he shoved Renna one
way and leapt the other. The armoured man landed with a crack that broke some deck planking and would have crushed them both. He rolled and came up standing, a bastard sword drawn with flickering speed.

        Odrough staggered to his feet drawing his broadsword. A dozen sailors mustered behind him with pike and sword to repel this unwelcome boarder.

"Hold!" Yelled Odrough. "Lets talk before we spill blood!" He backed
up a little. More of his men appeared behind him and he felt a little safer. He looked at the armoured man whose barrel helm obscured his face. His armour was black iron, etched and worth a Kings ransom. His sword seemed to glitter as if alive in the early evening air. The prominant Death Runes left Odrough no doubt as to what he was facing. "Sword of Humakt." He said. "Tell me your tale and put up your sword."

        The faceless helm seemed to stare at him an age then the sword was sheathed. Two mailed hands reached up and removed the helm with a click. A scarred face with black, black eyes and a shaved skull was revealed. He grinned. His teeth were iron, fanged and ferocious.

        When he spoke it was if he'd never removed the helm so dead and lifeless was his grating voice. "Wise decision sailor. I'd have hated to kill you all. Who'd sail the ship?"

        There was an angry mutter from the crew at that but Odrough silenced it quicky. "Back to your posts! I'll deal with this." Unwillingly the men obliged. A few stopped to wave at the angry horde of warriors still yelling at the ship from the jetty, but when the Captian said cast off, he meant it. There was no going back unless he ordered it.

        The iron toothed man crossed his arms and waited for Odrough to speak. Odrough looked back at the defeated pursuers. "They look real mad. Why are they after you warrior?"

"My name is Aldarch Roven-Drax but you can call me Onslaught." Said the
warrior flatly. "The explanation is simple. The Matriarchal council hired me as a weaponsmaster to train the jokes they call Humakti here. Never in my life have I seen such a useless, soft bunch of pretty boys in twenty-five years of training men. They spent more time buffing their armour and oiling their muscles than fighting. Still a jobs a job. I was training one of the better recruits and afterwards we went to a pub to talk about techniques. While I was away in the latrine he got into a scrape with an Axe Maiden of the Queens Guard. She was coming on to a friends girl so he stepped in. She drew on him and he fought back. Killed her."

	Odrough winced.  "Killed and Axe Maiden?  Not a good idea!"
	Onslaught nodded.  "True but at least the killing had honour and was a
worthy fight. Anyway, before we know it he's under arrest and they take me along as a witness. Within three hours he's on trial. The judge calls me up to tell the court how he killed the Axe Maiden. They know I'm bound never to lie. I tell her that I will not talk about a fellow Sword Brother and to go and find another rat. She turned red in the face and began banging her silly little hammer and calling me names. I told her to shut up."

"You told a Matriarchal Judge to shut up?" Asked Renna in disbelief.
        Onslaught noticed the white robed woman and dismissed her as a healer and no threat. "Yes. It didn't work, she just turned redder in the face, banged her hammer again and yelled that I was in 'contempt of court' whatever that means. She ordered me taken down to the dungeon until I felt like talking. Well, seeing that the were all mad, I slew the guards, leapt the bench, killed the judge to stop her whining, though she deserved less honour than I gave her, and left the court."

	Rennas eyes nearly bugged out of her head.  "You _killed_ the judge?"

"And 12 guards though they were little opposition and therefore nothing
to talk about." He said as if dicussing the weather.
"Then you left the area and were pursued?" Asked Odrough.
"Yes, and from the numbers of pursuers you'd think killed someone
important instead of a crazed woman. I killed a dozen but they kept coming. The odds were getting longer by the moment and the fight had no honour, no worth. It is one thing to die and go before Humakt knowing that you held the line for a kingdom. Its another thing altogether to die over a bar brawl. I legged it."

"You mean you ran!" Said Renna, horrified at the barbaric criminal in
front of her as he broke the law yet pretended at honour.

        The dead eyes swiveled in her direction. She felt a chill in the air that bit hard into her innate sense of wellbeing. The man reeked of death. "No lady, I do not run but like any military man I know when to withdraw and conserve my forces. There will be a reckoning for those people some day."

"So here you are." Said Odrough. "Now what do I do with you?"

	The man called Onslaught looked about.  "Where are you bound?"

"Handra."
"Then you can take me to Handra, I've never served there but I hear there
are wars aplenty, more in Ralios." He unhooked a pouch from his belt and tossed it to Odrough. "Twenty wheels, its all I've got, apart from the strength of my arn and my weapons. I vow to protect your ship to the best of my ability and to hold you, your crew and passengers in all honour and respect. By my Sword do I swear this."

        Odrough nodded. "Good enough for me. Never did like the Nochet crowd anyway. Big bunch of stuck up idiots if you ask me, with all their airs and graces. Welcome aboard warrior." He held out his hand and Onslaught clasped it in confirmation of their deal. "There's been some disturbing reports of pirates operating on the route, and we ain't talking your usual crowd of Wolf Pirates and Alatani. No, there's some new sharks in the water and we may need a good sword arm on this voyage." He looked at Renna thoughtfully, a disturbing look. "We may need a healer too."

        The captain looked around and saw that his men awaited his attention. He turned to Onslaught and Renna. "Come, lets get you to your quarters, I have a ship to run!"

        With that, what was to be the most terrifying experience of Rennas life began.

Martin Laurie


End of Glorantha Digest V3 #123


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