Nicodem vs the Viks - Narrative

[DangerousBeans]

edit: (crap I forgot! NBR SEPT if it's not too late)

Nicodem peered out across the wasteland of the quarantine zone, the ancient stone ruins of this particular area where he had built his safehouse standing cold and black against the evening light. There was no sign of life as far as the eye could see. No bushes flourished nor birds sang, all was still and silent. Nicodem liked it here. He had peered through his mind's eye into the viewpoint of one of his vultures a few miles ahead and had seen a small troupe making their way towards his hideout, so had decided to greet these unexpected guests in person. After all, they had travelled a long and perilous journey to get here, it was only polite.

Mortimer waddled up beside him and spat what Nicodem assumed to be the remnants of an overly-chewed cigar into the dust. "So what's happenin' here boss?" he said before grunting and gobbing a mouthful of tobacco stained mucus onto the cigar.

"Viktoria", replied Nicodem

"The Neverborn lass? Wha's she doin' comin' all the way out 'ere for?"

Nicodem sighed and calmy retorted to the obese slob, "I'm afraid I couldn't tell you, but it appears we'll find out soon".

"Right 'nuff boss, they're nearly here. Look over there, sure it ain't nothin'".

"Precisely, it's bound to not be nothing".

"Hmmm?" Replied Mortimer, a quizzed look on his overly joweled face. "I'll go rile the deadies".

Viktoria kept good pace despite the cold and arid surroundings. They had been walking for days and provisions were running low. Luckily Hans was a good enough shot to hunt what little wildlife there had been out here, if it weren't for those vermin they'd be starving by now. Her double moved with mirrored movements slightly further ahead, clearly the Neverborn in her eager to taste blood other than that of vermin, but that was not what they were here for and she hoped her double would remember that. Taelor and the ronin carried what little supplies were left, but Taelor was as loud and brash now as she'd been when they set out. She seemed to thrive in such god-awful conditions. Even now, Viktoria could her her laughter and cajoling with the unresponsive ronin. She had also hired the assistance of a gunslinger who, although maybe not the most pleasant company in the world, would provide reliable backup should her parlay with the necromancer fall through.

Upon the horizon in the evening light she could just make out a group of figures congregating in front of a ruin, the circling buzzards told her it was Nicodem himself come to meet them. She hoped the travel would be worth it, Nicodem and all who followed his "art" were aberrant to her but in this case she felt that his help was necessary. She just hoped he was in a compliant mood.

Nicodem stood and waited patiently, Mortimer had assembled a rather rag-tag but never-the-less imposing group of the animated dead to escort him and hopefully deter the girl from doing anything foolish.

Viktoria was now within clear sight of Nicodem, and her stomach turned as she looked upon his decayed retinue. The gunslinger was clearly ill at ease with it all, his hands already twitching above his revolvers and sweat christening his brow.

"Keep it together", Viktoria said to her crew at large.

"It'd be easier if you told us why the hell we're here, coming out to this shitehole to meet with a group of god-forsaken re-animators", replied the gunslinger. With rather loud approval from Taelor.

"I don't pay you to guess my motivations, just be ready in case this doesn't work"

They came to rest across from the necromancer and the smell of rotting flesh filled her nostrils. Among Nicodem's retinue was a girl, or what used to be a girl, and this girl captured the attention of the gunslinger.

"Carol? Is that, no way, can't be......" uttered the gunslinger.

"Keep your head" said Viktoria, her heart starting to pound.

"It's, it's not...no way is that........"

The belle staggered and slumped forward slightly, her dress slipping down and revealing what was once a tattoo on her upper arm.

"THAT'S MY %&*£ING WIFE!!!!!!!!!" yelled the gunslinger as he tore forward across the clearing, guns blazing wildly into the undead ranks. Hans quickly reacted by darting over to the flank to take up a covering position. Taelor, longing for a fight, ran ahead swinging her huge hammer wildly over her head and screaming her maniacal laugh. Viktoria tried to stop them but realised the combination of exhaustion, hunger and an inherent hatred of the undead were more powefrul motivations that anything she could produce. She darted ahead, hoping to stop the fight before it could really take off.

"Well, this will not do at all", Nicodem said to no one in particular as he took cover behind his shambling bodyguards. Mortimer lead the undead forward, chucking pieces of whatever dead he could find back to Nicodem.

Slowly but surely, the cadavers moved to receive the charge.

The Gunslinger took position atop a hill of ruined columns and let rip into the undead, spattering brains and congealed blood back at Nicodem. Nicodem concentrated and saw through one of his vultures eyes, embracing the bird's spirit he sent a tangible missile of decay through the animal which tore into the gunslinger and caught Viktoria in the blast. Viktoria charged headlong into the undead in the hope of breaking free to get to Nicodem, her cries for him to call off his horde drowned out by the blazing of guns and battle cries of the insane. She cut into zombies left and right, severing arms, heads and whatever other body parts got in her way. It was horrifying to see her cut-down adversaries stumble back to their feet with renewed vigour but she kept on hacking.

Taelor was locked in combat with sword wielding corpse of remarkable martial skill, too remarkable it seems as she appeared to be losing. She regained her focus and was lunging forward when the ground beneath her opened and swallowed her. The dust from the suddenly collapsing ground coalesced into the shape of a grinning woman armed with a pair of butchers knives who silently stalked behind the now engaged Viktorias.

Nicodem threw out a pulse of necromantic power and felt a smile curl on his erstewhile laconic expression. Viktoria was getting overwhelmed by the newly-dead but was gaining the upper hand. Such insolense would not stand with Nicodem and he reached out his mind to enhance his fighting corpses.

Viktoria's double took shelter on a hill, trying to gauge the best way to handle the rapidly snowballing situation. Before she could make a move however, she felt a stabbing pain in her back, turning her head she looked into the smiling face of the knife-wielding maniac that had appeared just moments after Taelor's demise.

Viktoria glanced back at Hans, wondering why he wasn't providing the support she paid him for and her question was quickly answered as she saw his position lost in a mass of flying feathers and craws.

As Viktoria stopped for breath in the mess of writhing body-parts she looked around for Nicodem. What was left of the sun was suddenly blotted out by a belly of huge proportions. Mortimer swung his shovel in an overhead arc and Viktoria had no choice but to seize the oppertunity and plunge her sword into the rolling gut. Mortimer stopped in mid swing and looked down at his gaping wound.

"Damn lass......" was all he could utter before falling to the ground. Nicodem frowned for a second, he knew he'd be able to fix the fat-man but losing him now was just........irritating. Luckily, his friend had created quite the oppertune moment for Nicodem to work his ungodly magic.

As Viktoria stood up, she felt a presence behind her and turned to look into the grimacing visage of the newly assembled monster. At least two different bodies had been used in it's creation, creating an even more unsettling appearance than usual. It let out a deep howl and slashed at Viktoria with a massive meat hook, she defly parried the blow but the force behind it sent her careening to the ground, exhausted and broken she tried to recover, and the monster clubbed her over the side of her head, knocking her unconscious.

Nicodem started to walk away, this had clearly been a waste of time. Still, the girl had travelled far and he still didn't know why. It was unlikely to have been for a fight. He sent out a mental message to his minions to collect the unconcious Viktorias and the body of Mortimer. He would send his lackeys back out later to collect any choice parts left from the battle. For the moment though, he was mostly concered with what Viktoria had to say for herself.

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35ss, Shared "Deliver the Message"

- Nicodem w/3ss

- Mortimer

- Bete Noir

- Convict Gunslinger

- Crooked Man

- Rotten Belle

- Vulture

- Necropunk

- Viks w/8ss ( I Think)

- Taelor

- Hans

- Convict Gunslinger

- Ronin

Basically:

Turn 1 - everybody moves, Mort makes a corpse (this spell is sssssssoooooooo much better now) & Nic summons a samurai punk.

Turn 2 - Gun-vik and his gunslinger move onto the hill in the middle of the board, Hans takes some shots at the belle, Nic fired loads of decays through the vulture. Sword-vik charges my gunslinger (who's done nothing) and butchers him. The necropunk then leaps into Vik and gets me the strategy.

Turn 3 - Taelor is charged and brought down to 1 wound by the samurai, the crooked man kills her off with a blast. Bete appears and stabs gun-vik in the spine. Hans is engaged by the vulture (who does 3 damage! Go bird!)

Turn 4 - lots of zombies appear! Vic kills Mortimer and nearly kills the crooked man. Nic makes a flesh golem that belts sword-vik silly. Samurai eats ronin.

Turn 5 - game's pretty much over so we call it quits.

This was not a good strategy for him at all. He had to fight through a wall of undead just to get to Nic, let alone stay the for a turn to be able to (2) interact with him later. The Necropunk made it too easy for me. Not the best shared strategy to be honest. Plus, very hard strategy to work into a story! A lot of fun though, killing the Viks is always a good time.

Edited September 22, 2010 by DangerousBeans

[KiltedWolf]

Damn, and I was going to run the Viks... :twitch:

Great write-up though, and sounded like an interesting and fun game. There is always something to learn.

[shawnreed343]

"THAT'S MY %&*£ING WIFE!!!!!!!!!" <-- best reason to begin a skirmish EVAR. XD

Loved the write-up; great fun turning it into a story! Hope to see more in the future!

[Sholto]

Nice write up, and that line about the undead wife is a keeper! Genius