Crusade 1103

After months of walking through the weird distorted world of the portal its appearance started to change and suddenly we were out. 

Promptly wished we were back in it again.

So much for coming out in the Emperor's garden. If this was his garden the gardeners had been executed years ago. Seemed much more like a jungle in monsoon season. 

Where was everybody? Going into the portal there'd been a huge crowd of us. Now, coming out, there was a small group of less than 20 of us which included two Lion Azure, two Black Company and a stranger who joined us (Cullen, he was looking for the Lion Azure when found himself in the portal). Then we ran into Greenskins. Small fights ensued before we found another group of the raiding force. Gradually the groups coalesced with continual fighting against larger and larger groups of Greenskins while scouts were sent out to see where we were. The scouts lead us to an area where the forces that had travelled by sea had set up camp and we joined them there.

The monsoon weather continued on the second day, peaking that night. It was easy to see why the Emperor had wanted to move home so badly unless the weather was somehow being manipulated by the Emperor and his servants. During the second night our command tent was one of many that succumbed to the storms, we'll have to find a more durable solution for the future. Our special thanks must go to the Fir Cruthen for their help and friendship towards us during this period of homelessness.

Scouts were going out continually to search for information regarding the Emperor and the Blood Queen to try to make the most of the surprise of our arrival before they could react with the full strength of their available forces.

During the whole time we were under regular attack by Greenskin forces, as Toku and Cullen found out while on a scouting/foraging detail. They came up behind a Greenskin unit that was moving up to attack the camp near where the Vipers were camped. Discretion seemed like a good idea for a while.

There were also occasional attacks by groups of undead during the night. Some of them were relatively weak while others were beyond our ability to hurt them in any way.

After a couple of days of scouting and many hours of discussion between the various faction generals two forces were sent out. 

One force comprising the Fir Cruthen, Jhereg and Wolves went to the Emperor's palace to deal with him directly. This force included at least the Lion Azure (as we had signed on with the Fir Cruthen), Draken, Argonauts, Advena and Freebooters from the mercenary camp. Toku and Cullen fought with the Fir Cruthen archers while Ryo-oshi was assigned to attempting to control the somewhat chaotic Freebooters. The fight was hard, against waves of Greenskin troops and many joinings, but we fought on through. Although the Emperor tried to escape through a portal he was brought to his inevitable doom. 

The second force consisted of the Vipers, Lions, Al Gaia and Jhereg and went after the Blood Queen. The Black Company and the Rigan Irregulars were with this force. The Blood Queen was defeated, though there were rumours afterward that she wasn't actually dead as it was simply one of her avatars, and the Culjag forces present surrendered to the Vipers.

All in all this first strike against the Greenskin homeland had been a massive success, far more than most of us could have hoped for when we started out. Admittedly the fact that most of the empire's better troops were absent, as they were involved in the invasion, had made things easier for us than they would otherwise have been but that shouldn't in any way be taken as a slight against the bravery and effort that was put in by our small force.

Crusade 1103 Piccies

Unfortunately there are no photos at all - some excuse about the weather and being homeless refugees - hopefully we'll do better next time. However, as a new service, we do have an attempt at a camp map to hopefully make up for it a little, the hope is that this will help the memories of those that were there.

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Lion Azure Roll - Crusade 1103

It's for real, not part of a game