Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>3637197

Rolled 32 (1d100)

>>3637197

Rolled 94 (1d100)

>>3637197

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>>3637197
>2 Successes
>1 Failure

I fired my crossbow. The bolt whizzed out of the mainframe and lodged itself into the braincage of one of the Eskhatans, killing him immediately. Hood took care of the rest. She was one of the fastest shooters in the Company, thanks to the plentiful practice she had with live target, singular.

"Two against your one, Scion," Hood said. "The next arrow will be through your throat."

I shrugged. Hood had made many threats like that before. That I was still alive was a testament to my tenacity. "Prefect won't be happy," I said, toeing gingerly at the corpses of the Rebel. "Eskhatan being here means anti-Imperial rebels. We're going to be up to our neck with ambushers and guerrilla fighters." That would slow the march down more than anything else. Stretched supply lines and difficult terrain is nothing compared to the feeling you are being constantly watched, and the hit-and-run mini-fights that would occur afterward. It saps at a man to be constantly on guard. I preferred an open battle instead, or better yet, to do the ambushing.

"Doesn't matter what makes him happy or unhappy," Hood grunted. "Drag those bodies. We need to burn them before we leave." I helped.

According to Hood, the woods contain secrets known only to the Emperor and his ilk, which is to say, "assholes willing to use whatever they can to do whatever they want". The Wars of Pacification that my great-grandfather waged all those centuries ago is said to have involved trees. Running trees that uprooted their ageless roots to lash out against the legionaries that came with fire and steel.

Rubbish and superstition. Trees don't run. They waft their branches gently in the wind to provide soothing leaf-susurrus to make children fall asleep. I told her exactly what I thought of her superstition. She threw her dagger at me. We danced the months-old dance of ours, her throwing everything she had on her and I evading them like a seasoned ballerina... is what I would like to say. Instead, I squealed like a girl as the dagger embedded itself against the oak behind me.

"Don't scream," Hood said quietly. "They can hear you." Who were "they"? She didn't say. It was getting dark. I watched the bodies burn silently.

"We're going to have to spend a night out here," Hood said. "I spent too long making sure there were only three of them." A night in the woods with Hood for company, with nothing but dried biscuits and deer jerky for food. As far as romantic dinners went, I've had better.

>"Too scared to walk in the woods at night?" I chortled. Me and my goddamn mouth.

>"Tell me about the woods," I asked. Even before I became Scrivener, I had an amateurish interest in histories of the various peoples of the Empire.

>>3637271
>"Tell me about the woods," I asked. Even before I became Scrivener, I had an amateurish interest in histories of the various peoples of the Empire.

>>3637271
>"Too scared to walk in the woods at night?" I chortled. Me and my goddamn mouth.

>>3637271
>"Tell me about the woods," I asked. Even before I became Scrivener, I had an amateurish interest in histories of the various peoples of the Empire.

let's try to talk a little before getting shot again
make a herculean effort not to stare at her tits, fail miserably

>>3637271

>"Tell me about the woods," I asked. Even before I became Scrivener, I had an amateurish interest in histories of the various peoples of the Empire.

>>3637271

>"Tell me about the woods," I asked. Even before I became Scrivener, I had an amateurish interest in histories of the various peoples of the Empire.

Hood!

Let's keep her talking, every minute talking is a minute not shooting, maybe share some wine to relax a little.

Pray for a cold night so we will have to huddle up for warmth.

Nice to see you back.

>>3637286
>>3637332
>>3637337
>>3637340
>"Tell me about the woods," I asked. Even before I became Scrivener, I had an amateurish interest in histories of the various peoples of the Empire.

The firewood cackled as I sleeplessly stared at the stars above. It was a beautiful view. She was silent. I began to believe she fell asleep.

"It was a beautiful place," she began, so quietly that I did not hear her at first. "Or my grandmother used to tell me, at least." Slowly, hesitantly, she started talking about her life in an Eskhatan village. The boisterous hunters, bringing back the wildrams and antlered deers in time for dinner. The silent fishermen, who formed a caste all their own. They preferred the silence of the waters and hated the hunters for their jolly frivolities that scared away the fish. The grandmothers who spun yarns about the Emperor before he was Emperor, who had come from a gigantic ship from the far west.

As she talked, she grew animated. I could imagine her arms moving, her face turning a healthy flush of pink, as she excitedly told me the myths and legends of her people. As her memories reached the recess of her mind not often touched, she began to revert more and more to Coin, the language of the mixed Eskhatans. It was a good thing I spoke Greek.

She told me about Micah, a man so wise he could count the number of men that came within The Ship. Timon, a Varangian who was a friend of the father of the Emperor, never without a laughter in his merry blue eyes even after losing his hands in defence of his friends.

And then of Ariamnes the Parthian. The Immortal. The Unhinged. The Destroyer. She lapsed into a silence once more.

"I am sorry," I said quietly. I really was. "I wasn't born when your island was destroyed." The Eskhatans had rebelled two centuries ago, before the Emperor disappeared. They had protested the destruction of the forests that was going on in Sinae. At that time, the Eskhatans were the favoured people. The People of the Ship. Alexandros' Own. Forests were their dwelling-places, preferring the raw lives led in the wild, making them a strong people, a lively people.

Not unlike the Magal in that regard. And we of the Capital, sister-fuckers that we are, call them barbarians. One of the many reasons I left everything behind.

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>>3637349

Retribution was swift. No mercy was shown even to the People of the Ship, those who came with the Emperor before he was Emperor. Half the island burned. The other half sank. And the forest, which was an old and ancient ally of the Eskhatans, fell to deep slumber. Or so the story goes.

"I will kill you someday," she promised. "Maybe after I gut your ancestor." I think she was struggling by then. To maintain a hatred of someone you know face to face is a difficult thing. Faceless men, ideas of men - they are much easier to hate. They are simple in their two dimensionality. We had been in the same platoon for nigh on five months now.

I clenched my mouth shut before I could say that out loud. The last thing I needed was a crying Hood. Women's tears are my anathema. They make me weak in the knees, and compel me to do foolish things.

I fell asleep. I dreamed of the day I met Honey.

----

"You normally cry in your sleep?"

"No." Nightmare. "You?"

She shook her head. "Look," she said, changing the subject abruptly. "Trails. Not normal." We were returning to the legionary castrum build right at the edge of the Forest. That is where the rest of the Company waited. I calculated around half a day more of travel before we made it back.

"Make it two," Hood said. "I want to know what this thing is."

>"Looks like human footsteps to me," I said. "What's so interesting about it?" I wondered why she kept calling it a "thing".

>"Our orders were to return with intel on Rebel activity," I reminded her. I missed warm bed and food. I missed peeking at the women's showers. Most of all, I missed Honey. Damn that dream.

>>3637352
>>"Looks like human footsteps to me," I said. "What's so interesting about it?" I wondered why she kept calling it a "thing".

>>3637352
>>"Looks like human footsteps to me," I said. "What's so interesting about it?" I wondered why she kept calling it a "thing".

She's having doubts! Soon she will only want to maim Aurelius instead of killing him.

>>3637352

>"Looks like human footsteps to me," I said. "What's so interesting about it?" I wondered why she kept calling it a "thing".

>>3637352

>"Looks like human footsteps to me," I said. "What's so interesting about it?" I wondered why she kept calling it a "thing".

I must say, Honey looks adorable, and the new op pic is nice.

>>3637363
>>3637360
>>3637355
>>3637365
>>"Looks like human footsteps to me," I said. "What's so interesting about it?" I wondered why she kept calling it a "thing".

"Humans don't go around barefeet," Hood said, shaking her head. "This isn't the jungle." She was right. We were still in the northern reaches of Sinae, south of the Wall though we were. And it was fall. The air was biting into our skins. "I want to know what kind of madwoman goes around without shoes in here."

"Woman?" I asked.

"Feet size and shape," she replied. A forest with bandits and feminine footsteps. It couldn't be good.

The tracks led us a long way from campway. "She started running here," Hood said. I stared at the footprint. It just looked like a footprint. "Broke some brushes. Maybe-"

"Shush," I whispered. Hood must have heard the urgency in my voice, because she didn't shoot me.

"What is it?" she asked. I shook my head and put my finger on my lips. My earlobes were tingling. Magic.

Ensorcelled are a breed apart from the rest of us. There is one Ensorcelled every ten thousand men, or a hundred thousand. I did not have the most recent statistics from the Imperial Bibliotheca. The point is, they were damn rare.

"Magic," I hissed. Hood stiffened.

>I motioned to her in no uncertain body language that we had to get the fuck out of here. [Try to go back]

>I lowered my body to the ground, flattening across the mildewed dirt. Hood followed suit. [Curiosity killed the Fill in the blank!]

>>3637371
>>I lowered my body to the ground, flattening across the mildewed dirt. Hood followed suit. [Curiosity killed the Fill in the blank!] (hopefully not us!)

>>3637381
As long as you aren't a cat, you'll be fine

>>3637384
catgirls never have it easy

>>3637371

>I lowered my body to the ground, flattening across the mildewed dirt. Hood followed suit. [Curiosity killed the Fill in the blank!]

Protec Hood is needed.

>>3637371
>>I lowered my body to the ground, flattening across the mildewed dirt. Hood followed suit. [Curiosity killed the Fill in the blank!]

>>3637371

>I lowered my body to the ground, flattening across the mildewed dirt. Hood followed suit. [Curiosity killed the Fill in the blank!]

>>3637461
>>3637417
>>3637387
>>3637381
>I lowered my body to the ground, flattening across the mildewed dirt. Hood followed suit.

Placing a bolt onto my crossbow, I nodded to Hood. Forward. We crawled. Slowly, painfully, ignoring the scratching underbrush and unrepentant dry branches that raked our face. I was about ready to call off the stealthy sneaking. Hood saw it first.

I almost exhaled loudly when she pointed at the camouflaged bodies. They were Rebel dead in battle gear, each wearing the yellow turban that denoted their hatred of the Imperial red. Their throats were plenty red, now. Each throat had been sliced open with infinite artistry - a single straight horizontal line, just enough to gouge the Adam's apples, or vertical if the Rebel was a she. Killing I can stomach. It is when it is done in a ritualised, obsessive manner, that I start despising the man behind it.

"Venatores," Hood said. Imperial hunter-magi. She was terrified. "The censors are here."

---

"It is probably nothing," Captain said. "Imperial censors like to poke their noses around everything."

"Imperial censors don't go around everywhere," I said helpfully. "The censores are the brain. They never leave the Capital. That was the definitely their venatores." Assassins. Scalp-hunters. Venators were the thugs of the Imperial Intelligence. If the frumentarii were their suave intelligencers and exploratores their scouts, the venatores went in to designated killzones, crossbows blazing. And the creeps controlling them all were the censores.

I was familiar with the censors, as a matter of course. Being an Imperial Scion, I was shadowed by the spooks for most of my life from birth. One of my first playmates was shot in the head by one after he accidentally slapped my face during a routine game of tag. Come to think of it, they had a large part in causing my friendless youth.

"If a venator is here, then we have to assume that the ground was charted," Lieutenant said. He glowered at me for daring to correct Captain. I didn't bother to correct him about the venator in singular. They always travel in packs, usually teams of three.

When I correct people, it's because I care.

"I don't know what they are planning in that forest, but it cannot be anything good." I said. Captain was a Varangian, an embittered race of nomads who were scattered in the four corners of the earth after the Emperor annihilated them as a show of force. Her husband was the former Khagan of the Magal Horde. How much did they know? How much did they not know? I hoped they didn't know about the almost-destroying-all-of-Empire bit that we prevented some time ago.

"We have our commission," she said, seeing the unspoken agreements between Lieutenant and I. For all his faults, he was loyal to her. "I will not break the terms of the contract with the Prefect."

>>3637484
>"I have an idea," I said. "Get someone glamoured up as Captain and use her as bait." What could go wrong?

>"What does the Prefect want from us? We already defended the Hole from the Magal incursion, didn't we?" Well, it would be more accurate to say that none transpired.

I was having issue with captcha, guess 4chan is bugging out

>>3637495
>"I have an idea," I said. "Get someone glamoured up as Captain and use her as bait." What could go wrong?

>>3637495
>>"I have an idea," I said. "Get someone glamoured up as Captain and use her as bait." What could go wrong?
we are bait aren't we? or is it one of the girls?

>>3637495

>"I have an idea," I said. "Get someone glamoured up as Captain and use her as bait." What could go wrong?

Death to them! For ruining our childhood and cutting woodland date short!

>>3637495
>"What does the Prefect want from us? We already defended the Hole from the Magal incursion, didn't we?" Well, it would be more accurate to say that none transpired.

>inb4 the prefect wants to rebel.

>>3637495
>"What does the Prefect want from us? We already defended the Hole from the Magal incursion, didn't we?" Well, it would be more accurate to say that none transpired.

>>3637508
If I were someone interested in gay smut, I would probably make Aurelius take the Captainifying glamour and pair you with Yesugei. (Un)fortunately, I am not one to do that.

>>3637555
Oh, I was planning on abusing it in a very different way, giving embarrassing orders to the Lt. and getting some honest answers from Hood regarding Aurelius....we would probably be shot afterwards too

>>3637503
>>3637508
>>3637519
>"I have an idea," I said. "Get someone glamoured up as Captain and use her as bait." What could go wrong?

"A temporary solution at best," Hood said. "We are going to have to keep all five wizards round the clock casting glamours. That's not efficient use of our magical resources." That it was not. Magic is taxing on the body and the soul. Overuse of magic without replenishing had resulted in Husking of individuals before. I didn't want to see Dumpling done like that. If glamour was to be involved, it couldn't be round the clock.

If only Captain could be persuaded to simply break the commission and have the Company move back north. Things would be so easy. Unfortunately, the Black Company prided itself in never reneging on a contract, once signed. We'd taken up a year-long contract, and the Prefect was making use of the lack of a Magal threat to put us to use as most mercenary companies are used in the Empire: a political tool.

True Imperial legions were gone from the world. They had marched west, disappearing into myth and legend like the sunset. The legions that existed now were pale shadows of the originals. Mundane tattoos replaced the magical ritual marks of the old Legions. But their discipline remained tight.

It was that discipline that made the legates, one and all, refuse to raise their swords against another legionary. The Emperor had been paranoid and put a curse on legionaries that would betray him. Supposedly he was influenced by a great civil war that had affected him personally, before he came east. The same curse didn't exist, of course. If it did, half the legions would have died. But the optics of the thing was what mattered. Legion would not battle legion, not in broad daylight.

That is why we were marching south, to deal with the prefect's equivalent of a slapfight. To be precise, we were authorised by the Prefect of Shoufang to deal with "rogue military elements" that was wandering around in the southern borders, which definitely was not a masked private military company attack sponsored by the direct southern neighbour, the Prefect of Anding.

The rule of the playground is the rule of politics. We were ruled by children who inherited their powers by virtue of their births. I didn't particularly relish fighting other mercenaries. They had their own goals and reasons for taking up arms, usually to be able to eat the next meal.

Be that as it may, our more immediate concern was going through the nameless forest that lay between us and the mission point. And Captain, straight-laced as she is, refused to reinterpret the contract.

>>3637568

"Nine centuries of unblemished service record," she said obstinately. "I am not going to run the Company's reputation to the ground just because some Imperial scalpers are out and about."

"For your scalp," I pointed out.

"Allegedly." She sniffed. I could actually think of a few sick fucks who would collect Varangian scalps. But they would just hire some mercenaries. Even the Minister of State couldn't use the censors, because they reported directly to the Emperor. And with the Emperor gone, they had a big blank check of "They Can Do What They Want". Signed, Emperor.

Imperial Intelligence was bad news. No, scratch that. They were Bad News. With capitals. The only times they were mobilised were when the members of the Imperial Family were threatened-

>Oh. I raised my hand with a guilty look. "I may have something to do with the sudden attention of the censors."

>I wasn't about to volunteer that information. Lieutenant still didn't know about my Imperial connections, and the rest of the platoon - including Raindrops, who would sell his own grandmother if the money was there - had stayed mum. I suspected some choice words from Captain had influenced Raindrops.

>>3637559
And they say QMs are the vicious ones...

>>3637571
>Oh. I raised my hand with a guilty look. "I may have something to do with the sudden attention of the censors."

just for our platoon?

is it time to get shot again?

anyway, we need to put the info out there in case we get these guys at risk because fo us

>>3637571
>>Oh. I raised my hand with a guilty look. "I may have something to do with the sudden attention of the censors."

>>3637571

>>Oh. I raised my hand with a guilty look. "I may have something to do with the sudden attention of the censors."

>>3637571
>>Oh. I raised my hand with a guilty look. "I may have something to do with the sudden attention of the censors."

One of the "benefits" of being an Imperial Scion is the undivided attention of the censors. I had thought that after all these years, I'd shaken off the spooks. Besides, how much attention could a lone roadster attract?

"You thought a wandering goldeneye would not get much attention." Captain looked at me with a deadpan expression.

"I usually don't drop by villages," I told her. "Living out in the woods and all that." One of the reasons I decided to join the Company was its showering facilities. "Eleven years. I mean, who hunts a person for that long?"

"Imperials," Hood said.

"Imperials," Captain sighed.

"...fair enough. But this far north?"

"So we have three people we need to disappear now," Lieutenant grunted. "Great. Lovely. Absolutely wonderful. I love it." I appreciated his optimism, and told him so. He told me to go die in a fire. I retracted my previous statement.

"Wait, three?" Captain whirled. "Leave Yesugei out of this!"

"No, he's right," I said. "He was the Khagan. He's probably going to be VWP."

Hood side-eyed me. "VWP?"

"Very Wanted Person." Dead or Alive.

>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]

>Magic. Magic is the omni-solution. I demanded glamours for everyone. [Glamour route]

>>3637614

>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]

I saw it qm!
And I'll throw you a bone since you already writen it.

Go with the help option on that one too.

Can we keep some people nearby in case things go sideways?+

>>3637636
Who do you want?

>>3637614
>>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]

>>3637614
>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]

>>3637614
>>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]

>>3637637
Oir friends, Hood for woodland things, Dumpling for emergency glamour, Ugly to scare wild animals away and be an extra target and Honey because we need her....maybe its too dangerous for her but...

>>3637696
I would rather not take Hood and Honey to a place were legionaires are around. Last time she tried to shoot the legionaires and Honey might still remember the crucifixion.

>>3637614
>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]
Oh boy another tale of the Black Company.

>>3637702
You make a very good point, I'm regretting bringing anyone near here actually, leggionaries can be real assholes

>>3637682
>>3637670
>>3637691
>So we went to the Legate's tent. Maybe we could lie low within the 13th Legion's structure while the fuzz were hot on our trails. [Hide in the local friendly legion]

And that is how we ended up in the Legate's quarters.

"Ah, Captain Shushukabouche," the Legate said. "What pleasure." He didn't look very pleased. I had a sneaking suspicion that he knew how Zhukova was pronounced, and was showing said displeasure by the not so subtle way of mangling the pronunciation. We had arrived in the dark of night, going through the perimeter defences like they were rice paper. If this had been an original Legion, we would have been killed, no questions asked. "So are you here to mock my soldiers' sentry capabilities, or do you have actual reasons for being here?"

Legate Arminius was from the Capital. He and his 13th Legion had been founded very recently to assist in the defence against the Magal Horde that was forming. He had apparently been looking forward to it. A valiant to the last man defences to be written into the history books. He was sorely disappointed. Some idiot had a candid heart to heart with the Khagan and persuaded him not to destroy the world.

Truly, the fist is the first and the last language of diplomacy.

>So I punched him. "Show some respect, Legate." Gods, I always wanted to do that to everyone in the Capital.

>"We thought that it would be conducive to inter-party relationship if we initiated an exchange program between the Legion's command element and the Company's. Strictly on the down-low, of course."

>>3637751
>>So I punched him. "Show some respect, Legate." Gods, I always wanted to do that to everyone in the Capital.

>>3637751

>So I punched him. "Show some respect, Legate." Gods, I always wanted to do that to everyone in the Capital.

>>3637751

>"We thought that it would be conducive to inter-party relationship if we initiated an exchange program between the Legion's command element and the Company's. Strictly on the down-low, of course."

>>3637751
>So I punched him. "Show some respect, Legate." Gods, I always wanted to do that to everyone in the Capital.

>>3637831
>>3637765
>>3637764
>So I punched him. "Show some respect, Legate." Gods, I always wanted to do that to everyone in the Capital.

That was quite possibly the first time anyone had given him any sort of remonstrative beating. "Do you know who I am?" he said, clutching his nose. I loomed forward threateningly, and he cowered.

"We are the Black Company, Legate Arminius," Captain said behind me, her icy voice recapturing the majesty of the Ice Queen of Khulan. She had a flair for the dramatic, something that I lacked. "We are here in behalf of the Prefect himself to straighten up your soldiers."

"The P-Prelate? But that means..."

"He is disappointed in you," she said, with just enough bite for him to pale, but not enough for him to start pissing in his pants. "We are here to fix that."

---

The Legate was very accomodating, once he bit the lie about our unexpected appearance having been sponsored by the Prefect. We were given pseudonyms to operate under, the Legate being assured that all disciplinary fruits will be credited to him and not some rag-tag mercenaries. I think the punch was what really convinced him. Men like him are incapable of thinking outside the system. If someone punches you, it is because he is authorised to do so.

Of course, I could only stretch that line of thinking so far. But it felt good to punch the man.

"I can't believe I signed up for this," Dumpling said. Of course I dragged the platoon wizard into this. You never know when magic might be useful. The two of us were alone in our billeted officer's quarters, which is to say a slightly fancier tent. Captain and Yesugei were in their own, because of course they were. I didn't want to listen to them doing their them things all night long. Even thinking about it made me lose my appetite.

I am a miserable man. The happiness of others makes me unhappy. Conversely, the misery of others make me happy. Maybe that's why I signed up to a mercenary company. More to the point, I was bored. There was nothing to do here. So I did what any hot-blooded man would do when cooped up in a two-people tent with a pretty young wizard.

>I sat up. "We're going to train those legionary bastards." If I was going to be miserable, I wanted everyone else to be miserable. There was an obvious logistical issue with making the entire world unhappy, so I opted the next best choice - the green recruits of the 13th Legion.

>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

>>3637881
>>I sat up. "We're going to train those legionary bastards." If I was going to be miserable, I wanted everyone else to be miserable. There was an obvious logistical issue with making the entire world unhappy, so I opted the next best choice - the green recruits of the 13th Legion.

>>3637881
>>I sat up. "We're going to train those legionary bastards." If I was going to be miserable, I wanted everyone else to be miserable. There was an obvious logistical issue with making the entire world unhappy, so I opted the next best choice - the green recruits of the 13th Legion.
let us channel our inner Caesar and make this into a real legion

>>3637881
>I sat up. "We're going to train those legionary bastards." If I was going to be miserable, I wanted everyone else to be miserable. There was an obvious logistical issue with making the entire world unhappy, so I opted the next best choice - the green recruits of the 13th Legion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X42Cdt-zhtI
I hope we get a training montage.

>>3637881
>>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

shenanigans

>>3637881
>I sat up. "We're going to train those legionary bastards." If I was going to be miserable, I wanted everyone else to be miserable. There was an obvious logistical issue with making the entire world unhappy, so I opted the next best choice - the green recruits of the 13th Legion.

>>3637881

>>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

I'm a hardcore Hood waifuer but even I want to throw Dumpling a bone.

>>3637881

>>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

>>3637881
>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

>>3637881

>>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

>>3637989
>>3637963
>>3637949
>>3637944
>>3637923
>Which is play a little game called Brave and the Fool. It goes like this - the players take turns being ordered to either tell one truth (the question of which the commander formulates) or follow through an act (the order of which the commander formulates). Theophilos said it is actually called Truth or Dare, but what does he know? He spent his childhood being tortured by cultists.

I drew the short straw. "Bite me," I said.

"I'm the one asking the questions here," Dumpling replied, cocking her head sideways. "Truth or dare?"

"Brave or Fool," I corrected her. She snorted. "Fine. Dare." I had a lot of secrets in my noggin'. I would rather be a fool than be brave.

She looked apprehensive. "I dare you to dance with me," she said at last. She looked embarassed at her lack of imagination. "With pleasure," I answered.

She inhaled sharply in surprise when I swooped her off her feet. She was short. Her head barely came up to my chin. I experimentally swung her about to get a feel for her weight, and then, starting off on tune inaudible anywhere else save my own brain, I danced.

One of the things the Schola teaches is the art of seduction. It is an important part of the familial sniping that goes on in the Capital, because as everyone knows, love makes one blind. It is at once the most potent of poisons and greatest of snaring spells. I was never any good at seduction, or much of the intrigue-related things. But dance - well, that's just like fighting, wasn't it?

I did the Maekarii, swinging from one end of the room to the other without seemingly lifting my feet off the ground. She spun without break as I twirled her mid-air, managing two whole three-sixties and a half. When she landed breathlessly, she found her fall cushioned on my arms, its strength typically reserved for bashing heads and stabbing bandits finding a new purpose in cradling the girl. My legs that learned its centre of gravity from years of combat training repurposed themselves in providing poise and grace as we swayed hither and thither in a medley of confusing patterns.

"Where did you learn that?" she gasped, when the mind's song ended. Our faces were so close to each other's. Her face was red from the exertion.

"I'm the one asking questions here," I replied, smiling impertinently. "Was the dance to your satisfaction, my lady?"

She was too out of breath to reply. I placed her gently back on the bed and began my round. "Brave or Fool?"

"What?"

"...Truth or dare," I said. Theophilos' silly name for the game must have infected more people than I'd previously thought.

"Truth," she said, after a moment of hesitation. So I asked.

>>3638084

>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?

>"What... is your favourite colour?" What? It's a legitimate question!

>"What... is your age?" An innocuous question. I usually played this game with men. I remembered too late that the other player was a girl.

>"What is the specific nature of the relationship between you, Morion, and Hood?" It was a question that Sister had once floated to the male members of the platoon. Mars help me, he was corrupting my morality.

>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?

>>3638092
>>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?
Inb4 we eventually ask her what is the air speed of a unladen swallow.

>>3638092
>>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?

>>3638092
>>3638092

>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?

But I'm saving this for the next round
>"What is the specific nature of the relationship between you, Morion, and Hood?" It was a question that Sister had once floated to the male members of the platoon. Mars help me, he was corrupting my morality.

>>3638092
>>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?

>>3638092
>"What... is your name?" I meant her real name, of course. It couldn't be Dumpling. Could it?

>>3638189
>>3638181
>>3638133
>>3638129
>>3638114
>>3638103
"Fariya," she whispered confidentially. Friend. It was a nice name. We didn't really go for real names in the Company. Many of the people who joined had done so to run from their past lives. I wondered what Dumpling and her sister had done to run away and join the Company.

"Now it's my turn," she said, mischief in her eyes. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare." She pouted, but commanded me anyway. "Say my name."

She always was an odd one. "Fariya," I sounded out the words. She seemed pleased. "My turn. Brave or Fool?"

"Truth," she said hopefully.

>"What... is your favourite colour?" It really is a legitimate question.

>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.

>"What is the specific nature of the relationship between you, Morion, and Hood?" Sister was the one who came up with the question. Any degeneracy is his fault.

>>3638240

>"What is the specific nature of the relationship between you, Morion, and Hood?" Sister was the one who came up with the question. Any degeneracy is his fault.

Me and my mouth, I said I would so.

>>3638240
>>"What... is your favourite colour?" It really is a legitimate question.

>>3638240
>>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.


the color one she's just gonna say golden like our eyes kek

>>3638240
>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.

>>3638240
>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.

>>3638240
>>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.

>>3638240
>What is the air speed velocity of a unladen swallow?

>>3638240
>>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.

>>3638240
>>3638240

>"What is the specific nature of the relationship between you, Morion, and Hood?" Sister was the one who came up with the question. Any degeneracy is his fault.
Can we ask this as a joke before the real question?, just to mess a little bit

>>3638334
>>3638317
>>3638287
>>3638279
>>3638276
>"Are you happy with your place in life?" I asked. It is very important to make regular checks to your comrades' good health.

"I am," she admitted. She chuckled when she saw my expression. "Surprised? Maybe it's not enough for you, Imperial Scion," she said playfully. "But I have a place to sleep, three meals a day, a loyal sister, and friends. I cannot ask for more than this."

Her cheerfulness seemed hollow. A disguise. There was a melancholy within that belied the sparkly exterior. I did not pry. A Scrivener is a physician as well as an annalist. We record the deeds of the Company to ease the goings of our brothers, and stitch their wounds to ease them in a more physical sense. But the doings of the mind, that was beyond any Scrivener's ken.

"You have low standards," I said instead. I dodged the swipe she threw at me. "Oop, too slow! I've been dodging arrows and knives, that slap is not going to do anything."

She raised her hand for another playful slap and I covered my head with my hands. The blow never fell. "Do you like Hood?"

I peeked up. "I haven't said-"

"I'm not playing," she said quietly. "Not right now. Do you like Hood?"

>"No. Nooooooo. I mean, sure, she has great assets and her face reminds me of my wife and her hair is absolutely gorgeous and those hips are amazing when they sway I have a problem please help me."

>"Like Hood? Why 0would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

>"She's promised to kill me," I said with a straight face, "with love."

>>3638359
Sorry, couldn't fit it in

>>3638382
>"She's promised to kill me," I said with a straight face, "with love."
This sounds like Hood, she'd try to kill us with the concept of metagaming if it was usable as a weapon and she was aware of it's existence.

>>3638382
>"Like Hood? Why 0would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

kek this awesome!

>>3638382
>>"Like Hood? Why 0would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

>>3638382

>"Like Hood? Why 0would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

I would say all of the options but this is the one I liked best.

>"She's promised to kill me," I said with a straight face, "with love."

>>3638382

>"Like Hood? Why 0would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

>>3638382

>"Like Hood? Why 0would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

But I like Dumpling a lot too...

>>3638481
>>3638456
>>3638415
>>3638408
>>3638401
>"Like Hood? Why would I like the psychotic woman hell-bent on killing me in her every waking moment? I spend my days worrying about her stealth arrows and knives out of nowhere and her booby traps and oh gods I think I might like her. What is wrong with me?" What was wrong with me?

It must be a disease of the mind, I thought. It was nonsensical. Irrational. To fall for the one who longs your fall - was I of a masochistic bent? I pinched myself, felt the tingling pain-response travel in a milisecond from the point of contact to the brain, which then judged the sensation to be not good.

No, I was not addicted to the pain. I longed for the attention.

Damn you, censores. Damn you for depriving us all of an ordinary childhood. You have robbed us of childish angers, tantrum-battles between little children that curb their ego and foster restraint. By limiting every negative factor in our upbringing, you turned us into hypersensitive brats, a singularly insular race of men who could only thrive in a contained environment. Kin among kin. Ilk among ilk.

That was the reason Hood's negative interest so excited my curiosity. No one was so driven in any emotion toward me, including myself.

If there was one thing that separated me from the other inbred Scions, it was that my father's incompetence resulted in his production of an offspring with a non-relative. A common servant, one who should not have even attracted the attention of those god-descended beings. But my father, as you know, was a failure. Perhaps that was why I felt such revulsion toward the inward-looking Capitalists. To think that Legate Arminius was more "pure" than I.

I understood the hatred toward goldeneyes then, in a fundamental level that I had never experienced.

"I see," Dumpling said at last. I returned to earth from my moment of self-exploration. "I understand. She is a very pretty girl. I am sure you will be happy with her. If she doesn't kill you." Her last-moment joke felt weak, halfhearted.

>"I am sorry," I said quietly. I didn't know what I was sorry about. But it felt the right thing to say. Crying women, as I have mentioned, are my anathema.

>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.

>>3638513
I'm stunned, I can't decide

>>3638513

>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.


Harem route bois.

>>3638513
This is why i dont like relationships

>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.

>>3638513

>"I am sorry," I said quietly. I didn't know what I was sorry about. But it felt the right thing to say. Crying women, as I have mentioned, are my anathema.


The writing's still on point man, very nice.

>>3638513
>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.
to think we couldve been training the greenhorns into real legionaires

>>3638513
>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.

>>3638513
>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.

So Magal sorceress as head wife, Hood and dumpling as courtesans?

>>3638642
Ignore military trainning acquire waifu

>>3638642
why would we make the guys that will eventually try to kill us into better soldiers?

>>3638650
The magal sorceress is long gone, they went back to the plains after the Khagan thing ended, and they never joined the company.
Hood waifu for me all the way still.

>>3638684
She wasn't part of the horde to begin. Her tribe didn't agreed with the Khan and were running away from the horde.

But i guess it's unlikely we will see her again now that the Khan is no more and the horde splitted.

>>3638548
>>3638549
>>3638642
>>3638649
>>3638650
>"I like you too," I told her. An impulse. Once the dam of emotion opened, I found that it was easy to say it a second time. "I like you lots." And promptly turned me to a blushing brat.

It was a day for surprises. I didn't put to pen the aftermath of the confession. No doubt Senior Scrivener Xavier would find my scribblings incomprehensible at best (being an eunuch) and self-serving at worst. But even in my private writings, I left behind only a couple of dry sentences. She was happy. I was satisfied. There were things to be discussed. Arguments to be had. But for that evening, we luxuriated in our declaration of mutual attraction.

It is a beautiful thing to be able to share love. Here I go again, writing such nonsense. They must take away my quill before I start dabbling in poetry again.

Company wizards reported that the thaumaturgic signatures were heading further and further from the Company. It seemed I was spared the attention of the censors, for now. We returned to the Company after four days of being in the Legion. And the southern march to our designated battles began in earnest.

Shamaness came to visit us in our tent. Many Magal elements had joined the Company after the scattering of the Horde. Perhaps they were enticed by the prospect of traveling beyond their known. She was one of them. I think my descriptions of Nanman excited her the most. She wasn't in our platoon, but she often came to visit Dumpling and Theophilos.

"And you, Aurelius!" she said, her ever-ready laughter tinkling in the frigid air. Winter was fast approaching. "Honey, too, of course. She's really been taken with the bow and arrows I gave her for her birthday."

"Birthday?" I was nonplussed. I didn't remember her birthday.

"The day I met her is her birthday, as far as I'm concerned," she said. "Gloomy Aurelius, lonely Aurelius. Why do you always remove yourself in the list of people I come to visit?"

"I am naturally humble," I replied. "It is a curse."

"May I say how inspiring it has been to see you struggle against that curse," she replied with a smile. "Oh! I heard what you did with Dumpling." I wondered if the Company wizards had some sort of secret club of their own. "And here I thought you had no idea how to be forward! Aurelius, you rogue."

>>3638862

>"We held hands. We talked." There was much and more to sort out. For one thing, it turned out that I actually had a thing for multiple wives. Despite prior evidence to the contrary. Ah, well. I rolled with the punches.

>"We're not going out," I said stubbornly. "Just because we both said we kind of liked each other doesn't mean suddenly we are paramours." There was also the question of what to do with my multiple attraction syndrome. Which I didn't struggle with before, being a monogamist. Truly, life is full of surprises.

>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

>>3638869
>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

DOODDGEEE

>>3638869

>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

Time to dodge arrows!

>>3638869

>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

>>3638382
>0would
Fuck you

>>3638869
>>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

>>3638941
Nice catch

>>3638869

>>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

>>3638513
>>"I am sorry," I said quietly. I didn't know what I was sorry about. But it felt the right thing to say. Crying women, as I have mentioned, are my anathema.
I apologize for my evil brethren's shitposts. We will be less evil from henceforth, from now on I shall lead the benevolent shitposts.

>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

Polyamory is a thing in about all these cultures, you know.

>>3638869
>>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

>>3638869
>>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows

>>3640926
>>3639145
>>3639132
>>3639035
>>3638950
>>3638921
>>3638884
>>3638914
>"It turns out I'm also attracted to Hood, who has been doing everything to kill me since we both joined. Oh, hello Hood! Please forget what I just said- or just shoot me. Yeah. I don't know what I expected." Arrows. Expect arrows.

I wondered if Eskhatans were monogamists. Having one wife is considered the norm in Imperial lands. Even the Emperor, many-wived as he was, only ever had one consort at a time. It was not exactly his fault he was so long-lived, while all others had normal lifespans.

I stumbled on the ground. I blame love. "Don't do it!" I said. "Think of Dumpling and Honey!" That made Hood hesitate. It also confirmed my suspicion of their... something. I wasn't sure what.

"I'm doing this out of favour to Dumpling, not you," she said, exasperated. "You better treat her right, or I'll emasculate you myself. If it turns out that you were leading her on..."

"I also like you," I said. It was getting easier to say the more I did. Her face went a deep shade of crimson in anger. "And by like, I mean-" Her arrow shot me through the toe.

---

Broken toenails, it turns out, do not heal as quickly as ruptured vessels and sliced muscle. Maybe my body thought it a non-critical component of the body. It felt pretty critical to me. In my qualified medical opinion, it made me effectively invalid and unable to take part in the foot slogging through the Road of the Forest. I didn't name those names. The locals didn't travel around much, which is why they didn't bother giving special names to their Forest and their Road.

"At least you don't need to walk," Yesugei chuckled. We were on the tentwagon, one of the things we nicked off the Magal when many of them joined us. Tentwagons are essentially moving tents, built right atop wagons. They are able to house the wounded and the infirm who cannot travel by foot.

"You're not hurt," I said. "What are you doing here?" I barely stopped a bottle of ink from falling and getting everywhere again. I should know better than to keep an opened bottle lying around while on the move.

"Learning," he shrugged. "Supposedly." Yesugei was the former Khagan of the Horde. He was now an assistant Scrivener. He already knew how to read and write Sinaean, but Captain wanted me to teach him High Imperial. Which is a posh way of saying Latin. I wondered if I might be able to fit in Coin, which is a vulgar way of saying Greek.

"I thought I was your assistant Scrivener," Lee said, betrayed.

"You are," I told him. "I have two assistants. Now continue massaging my calves. That's what you do for people with broken toenails." Oh yes. It was good to be a Scrivener.

Theophilos' head suddenly appeared from the entrance flaps, causing all three of us to squeal in fright. The bottle of ink spilled. I hadn't placed the cap on it yet.

>>3641217

"Captain's coming," Theophilos said, unaware of the heart attacks he just caused. "Oh, and Lieutenant as well. Did you do something again, Brother Aurelius?" I resented that. I was not a badly behaved child, to be lectured at as if I was still in the Schola. I told him where he could shove his accusations. I immediately regreted it when he looked hurt and disappeared, but also relieved, because he had disappeared. My emotions were running high since the Confessions.

Just as I was getting my nerves back, Captain and Lieutenant entered. She frowned. "Why do you have ink all over you?"

"Because we're Black Company," I said lamely. Lee sniggered. I wiped my hand off Lee's shirt. He stopped laughing.

"Good job ruining the command tent," Lieutenant said acidly. Then he turned to Yesugei. "Hullo." That was much friendlier than I expected.

Captain announced, "This is the only place we can get some privacy. I am now commandeering the tent for operation planning."

"You can't do that!" I said. "We have wounded here."

"There are three of you here, and none of you look like you are dying." I defiantly pointed to my toe.

"Get your toe out of my face, Aurelius, or I promise you that there will be more broken toenails by the end of this evening." She didn't look to be in a jocular mood. So something was up.

>I do not like staff meetings at the best of times, and I'd somehow gotten roped in to more than one of them recently. I wasn't Senior Scrivener Xavier. I decided to foot it.

>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

>>3641220

>I do not like staff meetings at the best of times, and I'd somehow gotten roped in to more than one of them recently. I wasn't Senior Scrivener Xavier. I decided to foot it.

>Deep red in anger
Yeah, anger lol

>>3641220

>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

>>3641220
>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

>>3641220
>>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

>>3641220
>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

>>3641220

>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

This is to take part in the meeting right?
I don't wanna share a tent with those 2.

Good thing we were honest with Dumps about Hood from the start.

>>3641271
>>3641270
>>3641266
>>3641253
>>3641267
>"Fine, but I get to stay," I told her. I like to think I have a bit of sway over Captain, ever since I rescued her husband from the toes of his own depressive suicidal phase. And the bit where I saved the world. But mostly saving her husband.

Captain and Lieutenant looked at each other, knowing looks passing between them. I tensed.

"Sure you can stay," Captain said, purring like a Parthian cat. "This involves you as well, Aurelius. Our Scrivener-Warrior."

"No," I said.

"It will be like a vacation. You won't take part in the battle-"

"Nuh uh." Like I would believe that.

"Show some respect to your Captain," Lieutenant barked, and I cowered. It was definitely not because I was afraid of authority figures. "We need someone who can handle himself in a small fight, and a translator. None of the other Scriveners both speak High Imperial and Coin. Which means you, Scrivener Aurelius." He looked disgusted, I think. I couldn't tell, on account of his never-opened face helm. But he had the aura of a man displeased with admitting the indispensability of a minion on him.

"And you are an indispensable minion, thanks to your varied skillsets," he said. I was a good reader of auras. "This disgusts me." Very good. "You are a slimy, perverted, good-for-nothing, golden-eyed-"

He went on for some time like that. It wasn't fair. I didn't choose to be born an Alexandrian. Then again, none of us ever choose our parents. Still, pointing at eye colour was a bit of a low blow. He finally went to his point, which was that he needed a small platoon to be inserted into a border city we would be fighting over with the southern prefect.

"The one who rules Anding Commandery?" I asked.

"No, Scrivener Aurelius. The one who rules the fething Capital. Of course it's the Prefect of Anding, you ninny."

"And it's a walled city," Captain interrupted. "Heavily defended and mostly independent, we think. You'll be safe from the battle."

That was a lie. You don't send insertion teams into a completely safe place. If a platoon was being sent, that meant they wanted a force small enough to be deniable, but also large enough to deal with local-scaled troubles.

"So you'll be marching with the 13th Legion through the Forest with Prefect Publius Quinctilius Varus while we zip ahead and hang around in the city. Sounds like a breeze," I said sarcastically. For some reason, I didn't like the idea of someone named Varus going through a Forest. I got feelings like that sometimes. "What is the name of the lucky town that will be graced with our presence?"

Lieutenant carefully wiped off the drying ink off the table and opened the map. He pointed at the town.

>>3641312

>Traian's Gate, named after one of the fifteen hundred Traians that the Emperor sired over a lifespan so long it was a surprise when he died (allegedly). From the name, I guessed some famous battle had been fought over the place some centuries ago and a town was built over to honour that legacy or somesuch.

>Bath, a famous resort town where nobility flocked whenever winter came. The natural hot springs in that place was famous even in the Capital. There was even an order of knights built around it.

>Crook. If there ever was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, this here was it. The black market here was so thriving it was practically white. They didn't give Black Company trouble the last time we passed through, which was on our way to the north for the Magal job. This time, we would be going in, platoon-sized.

>>3641313
>>Bath, a famous resort town where nobility flocked whenever winter came. The natural hot springs in that place was famous even in the Capital. There was even an order of knights built around it.

>>3641313
>>Crook. If there ever was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, this here was it. The black market here was so thriving it was practically white. They didn't give Black Company trouble the last time we passed through, which was on our way to the north for the Magal job. This time, we would be going in, platoon-sized.

it's good when we got to kill those that kind of deserve it

>>3641313
>Bath, a famous resort town where nobility flocked whenever winter came. The natural hot springs in that place was famous even in the Capital. There was even an order of knights built around it.

vacation!

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>>3641318
>>3641325
>hotsprings

>>3641313

>Crook. If there ever was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, this here was it. The black market here was so thriving it was practically white. They didn't give Black Company trouble the last time we passed through, which was on our way to the north for the Magal job. This time, we would be going in, platoon-sized.

>>3641325
>>3641318
Please do notice that there is a knight order there. And knights usually don't like mercenaries specialy BLACK COMPANY mercenaries.

>>3641313
>Crook. If there ever was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, this here was it. The black market here was so thriving it was practically white. They didn't give Black Company trouble the last time we passed through, which was on our way to the north for the Magal job. This time, we would be going in, platoon-sized.

>>3641332
How about we gonto

Crook Bath, a den of thives and brigands but hey, hotsprings! Where the most common crime is people stealing your clothes when you go take a dip.

Can't wait to take Hood there.

>>3641313
>Bath, a famous resort town where nobility flocked whenever winter came. The natural hot springs in that place was famous even in the Capital. There was even an order of knights built around it.
I would vote gate but there is no intrest so second most interesting

And we are tied.

>>3641401
Qm can either roll or give us crook bath.

>>3641406
I'll change to >>3641341
Sounds interesting.

>>3641406
>It ends up that Crook and Bath grew so much that both towns decided to join up. Now the knights are pissed they have to share their place with tugs.

>>3641341
Here comes the tie breaker

> Crook Bath

>Make QM's life harder vote

Three weeks after departing from the main Company group, our platoon was in viewing distance of the City of Bath, situated at the bottom of a supermassive volcano's caldera. She greeted us like the tired travelers we were, the whitewashed walls and blue rooftops of the white city promising us comfort and rest.

"What is that?" Honey said. She was pointing at the brown-black muck that was surrounding the Jewel City of the North that filled the rest of the caldera.

"Crook," I said grimly. If Bath was the diamond, then Crook was the rough, a crime-filled slum that stretched all around Bath itself. Only one road was kept open directly into Bath, guarded by the Knights of the Bath. The whitestone paved road was let through with an exorbitant toll, which pilgrims used half their lives to earn for.

"We're supposed to scout around this?" Trevain complained. "This is not just a town or a village, it's an entire city!"

"Our mission parameters are to check out the internal mood of the city and see which way the winds are blowing," Sergeant said. Everyone looked at him with uncomprehending eyes. He sighed. "We need to figure out if Bath is rooting for our prefect or their prefect."

"So I guess that means we won't be using the whiteroad," Hood said. "We'll have to divulge our identities to the Knights."

>"They might not know that the Black Company is still working for the same prefect," I argued. "Maybe they would reason that we fulfilled our job and are going back south." I just didn't want to go through Crook. It was a nasty place.

>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

>>3641475

>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

Sneak sneaky time

By the way in case it isn't clear

1st vote = Whiteroad -> Bath

2nd vote = Crook -> ? -> Bath

>>3641475
>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

Friggin nobility

>>3641475

>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

Looks like we are back where we started, killing bandit extras not named James(and maybe some that are)
Let's hope Hood doesn't shoot us at the end this time (who am I kidding...)

>>3641475
>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

I don't want to say it..but i don't feel so good about our situation.

>>3641495
Aaaaa
Don't curse us anon!

I have no feelings, be it good or bad about this.

And I'm not sure if its goimg to be alright or not.

And I'm uncertain if this could be the worse that would happen or the best.

I hope that counters it.

>>3641475
>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

File: Raindrops.jpg (80 KB, 504x360)

80 KB JPG

>>3641511
>>3641495
>>3641492
>>3641487
>>3641481

>"Not to mention the price," I sighed. The toll for the whiteroad was what kept the Order of the Bath sustained. They were filthy rich, what with all the pilgrims and the seasonal wealthy that flocked every winter. But they always wanted more.

"We'll join up with the line of refugees," Sergeant said. The border disputes between our prefect and that other prefect had intensified. People were flocking to walled cities. Crook itself had no walls, but Bath did. It was hoped by the poor and the oppressed that Bath would open her gates once war began in earnest. "All we have to do is act like a family. We've been a platoon long enough, so we should be able to manage it."

"Shamaness was just added," I pointed out. "And Yesugei and Lee are not even in the platoon." It wasn't like I could leave my assistants behind. And Captain insisted that a second wizard be brought.

"With another wizard, we can coordinate even with two separate teams," Trevain said. "Maybe we should split up. The bigger the group, the more attention we will receive."

"Or we could use my friends in Crook," Raindrops said impishly. We looked at him sceptically. "What? I have friends!" Raindrops was the platoon's acquisitions expert. His grimy fingers that knew no bath was always twitching, sometimes twiddling. "Crook is the center of the underground trade in the north. There are tunnels and such for emergency services. I'm sure I can get us in." For a price. There is always a catch with these criminal organisations.

>One big happy family. We could manage that at least as long as the refugee line took.

>Two smaller, but still big, families. One wizard each in the "families" would mean that we could make contact once inside, even if we were separated.

>Raindrops' friends seemed the most quiet way of entry, especially with all our weapons and armour currently stored in the wagon.

>>3641475

>>3641537
>>Raindrops' friends seemed the most quiet way of entry, especially with all our weapons and armour currently stored in the wagon.

>>3641537

>Two smaller, but still big, families. One wizard each in the "families" would mean that we could make contact once inside, even if we were separated.

Dumpling, Hood, Ugly and....ugh...Sister with us.

Current roster:

Trev
Raindr
Me
Shamaness
Dumpling
Morion
Hood
Theophilos
Honey
Sergeant
Sister
Yesugei
Lee

"It's a two wizard job," Captain said.

"I don't want two wizards. They're all crazy."

"Dumpling is your girlfriend," she pointed out.

"Dumpling is also crazy enough to love me." I counterpointed out.

She did not dispute that. "Take Shamaness. At least you know her."

And that's how we got Shamaness included in our platoon.

>>3641546
So
13
We take six then

Dumpling, Hood, Heophilos, Sister, Honey(obviously) and Lee since he is our apprentice.

>>3641537
>>Raindrops' friends seemed the most quiet way of entry, especially with all our weapons and armour currently stored in the wagon.

>>3641537
>>Raindrops' friends seemed the most quiet way of entry, especially with all our weapons and armour currently stored in the wagon.

But if any of them so much as looks at Honey wrong, they get a bolt to the face

>>3641537
>Two smaller, but still big, families. One wizard each in the "families" would mean that we could make contact once inside, even if we were separated.

Don't want to expose Honey to Raindrop's friends...

>>3641555
>>3641549
>>3641540
The men who led us down the tunnels were silent save for the noise made while working, not at all the thugs I expected. They were respectful and did not bother the women. Honey didn't seem scared. I wondered if that spoke more to her innate bravery or the company she kept.

Raindrops was whispering with Sergeant more and more often. I didn't worry about it. Sergeant would tell us what the price was. Given that the thugs seemed to know we were Black Company, I had a feeling we would be making use of our not at all unique skillset soon.

Raindrops' mysterious friend had reserved us lodging in one of the ramshackle inns that seeded throughout Crook named the Lamprey Soup. The wooden boards were near rotten through, and the soup in the cauldron was made of yesteryear's leftovers and not at all reminiscent of any lampreys. The customers were always rough, and the nights in the bar/restaurant in the ground floor usually had one brawl a day. It was a perfect place for the Company.

Sergeant told us to sit tight while he finished negotiating with Raindrops' patron. We were allowed to wander around, but we were told not to attempt to enter Bath by ourselves.

>So I waited, pretty as you please, staying indoors like a good boy.

>One of the regulars in the Lamprey Soup told me of a fighting ring, after seeing Theophilos and I manhandle a drunkard trying to lay his hands on Honey. Apparently the prizes were considerable.

>I spent the time teaching Yesugei and Lee a new tongue. The de facto language of merchants, Coin saw much currency (heh) among criminals as well.

>I took a special someone out for dinner, after miraculously finding a halfway decent establishment that did not serve ancient porridge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

>>3641618

>I took a special someone out for dinner, after miraculously finding a halfway decent establishment that did not serve ancient porridge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Before waifu posting ensues reminder Honey is probably hungry.

>>3641622
Will result in second round of vote seeing who this special someone is. Could be Moonboy, for all I know.

>>3641618

>I took a special someone out for dinner, after miraculously finding a halfway decent establishment that did not serve ancient porridge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I, as predictable as it would be, will say Hood without a doubt, we still have to mellow her out a little more, but!

Anon here >>364162 makes a good point, Honey can come along too, it's not like this is a date or anything....right?

>>3641618
>One of the regulars in the Lamprey Soup told me of a fighting ring, after seeing Theophilos and I manhandle a drunkard trying to lay his hands on Honey. Apparently the prizes were considerable.

So you are saying we get to a chance to bet. Get more coin AND train our hand to hand skills? Sing me up!

>>3641618
>>I took a special someone out for dinner, after miraculously finding a halfway decent establishment that did not serve ancient porridge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

>>3641618
>I spent the time teaching Yesugei and Lee a new tongue. The de facto language of merchants, Coin saw much currency (heh) among criminals as well.

Sit down, strap in and shut up. It's time fot KNOWLEDGE

>>3641618
>>I spent the time teaching Yesugei and Lee a new tongue. The de facto language of merchants, Coin saw much currency (heh) among criminals as well.

Right, I'm home again now. Looks like dinner won! Which person do you want to have a one-on-one with? Does not necessarily have to be a love interest.

>>3642018
Honey duh

Of course I'm sure Dumpling and Hood are with us of their own volition (read: uninvited)

>>3642018
Hood

We need to talk somethings out to make sure we don't die rigjt now

Make sure to bring some take out for Honey and Dumpling

>>3642028
I woukd also like to add that taking Honey for a walk alone with us on the streets of Crook can be dangerous, she would be safer holed up with the mages, we can make sure to bring her something nice.

>>3642018
Hood

>>3642033
You are not fooling anyone.

>>3642018
>Honey

>>3642018
I'm torn betwenn Honey and Hood, can't we take them both?

if not I'll say Hood, I want to ask her the nature of her relationship with Dumpling, but either one is fine.

>>3642018
Honey

>>3642018
Hood

Even in slums like Crook, there existed a hierarchy of authority. Your usual ganger was poor and without regular wage, incentivised by special bonuses and peer pressure. They subsisted hand-to-fist and did what they could to earn them extra brass. Then there were the leashes, the NCO-equivalents, who held control over multiple gangers. They had it slightly better, being able to afford multiple pairs of shoes. Go several rungs up the ladder and there were the bosses whose lifestyle was considerably wanton, even by the standards of the Outside.

The Clam catered to the highest tiers of Crook society. And that meant a surprising amount of class. The food was certainly better than the usual Black Company nutri-slop that Glen the Cook prepared for us - distinctly unhealthy, with a lot of fat and oils and a spicy aftertaste. The courtesans that served here were comely, if not fair. The influx of refugees had given the owners of the Clam a greater field to pick in. A sleazy horned instrument played lazily from some hidden alcove somewhere.

"You didn't tell me this was a formal wear occasion," Hood said suspiciously, glancing around at the other discerning clientele. She was wearing her usual. Form-fitting black leather armour, made more for ease of movement than defending against blows. She had her hair tied to a single ponytail. Easier to shoot an arrow when you do not have your hair faffing about.

"It's the Crook," I said. "You never come unarmed." She never came unarmed anywhere in the firsts place. [I]There he is.[/i] "Pretend I just said something funny."

Her eyebrow quirked. "You are always funny, Aurelius. Funny to death." I didn't need to look under the table to know she was preparing to throw her dagger.

"This is serious."

She scoffed, but made a small smile. "That was enough," I said. "I think you made them believe this is a purely social outing."

"Still on the job?" she said, sarcasm dripping heavily from her voice.

"Always. Don't look, but there is a guy who was following us from the inn."

She gave me an unreadable look. "Why did you invite me here, Aurelius?" she asked. "Your girlfriend is probably waiting. And your wife is probably wondering what you are doing with the one person in the world who wants to kill you the most."

"My 'girlfriend', as you put it, knows about my condition." Wait, wife? "Wait, wife?" I echoed my thought belatedly.

"The Magal princess," Hood replied with a smirk. "She says you pledged your hand to marriage. Something about giving the horse. I assumed that was euphemism." Oh.

"That was not euphemism." I blushed, remembering the completely chaste night we shared in the yurt.

"I know. You are incapable of putting it up." That was rude. I was plenty capable. I just liked to be sure about the emotional foundations of a relationship. "You didn't reply to my question."

>>3642148

"If you have to know, I noticed that we were being watched someone or someones. I assume they were hired by Raindrops' friend to keep an eye on us. So I found the most expensive, haute-couture dive this slum had to offer to see if the eye had the means of entering such a place."

She rubbed a finger against the clean glass. "And you needed a decoration on your arm. Is that it?"

"No reason I can't mix business and pleasure. I figured bringing one of the most beautiful women in the Company could boost my chance of being admitted into this place." Her finger that had been rubbing insistently against the glass stopped. "It's not just flattery, I've looked into it. According to the latest polling, you're sixth, trailing just behind Morion and Dumpling. I assume the twin factor improved the-"

"Shut up while you're ahead, Aurelius."

"Yes, ma'am. Shutting up, ma'am."

This was the most talk I'd had with Hood since, ever. Even in the woods, she was skittish, wary. But in the Crook, you had to be wary of everyone. And when you are wary of everyone, you start ranking the dangers around you. Evidently I was at the bottom of the list. There were plenty of eyes being thrown at us, the local crimelords and bigwigs licking their lips at the woman I'd brought.

I ordered another carafe of millet-wine, and some fried mystery meat platter to go with. "Since I'm buying dinner, may I un-shut up?"

She rolled her eyes. "As if I could get you to. You literally came back from the grave to yammer on at me."

>"We seriously need to talk. We're heading into dangerous territories here, and while I appreciate your single-minded devotion to my well being, I need to know I will not have an arrow hanging over my head every time we get inserted to hostile situations."

>"What is the precise nature of the relationship between you, Dumpling, Morion, and Shamaness?" Damn you Sister for adding another one of the Ten Company Beauties to the mix. But I had to ask this for the boys back home.

>"I was hoping to enlist your help in catching our tail. He's clearly someone of influence and wealth in Crook." It had gotten very old, very fast, to have eyes snooping you every day. The last time I had lived in a city was eleven years ago.

>>3642151
>>"We seriously need to talk. We're heading into dangerous territories here, and while I appreciate your single-minded devotion to my well being, I need to know I will not have an arrow hanging over my head every time we get inserted to hostile situations."

It's so bizarre to see Hood become an actual character. She was only ever going to be a side NPC, but for some reason her shooting at the MC got anons hooked.

Not that I disapprove, mind you. But it took some time trying to get her to be anything more than "You talk, I shoot"

>>3642151

>"We seriously need to talk. We're heading into dangerous territories here, and while I appreciate your single-minded devotion to my well being, I need to know I will not have an arrow hanging over my head every time we get inserted to hostile situations."

While I appreciate she usually avoids vitals maybe we can work something out.

>>3642155
'He who beats his wife, loves her' - Varangian proverb

>>3642151

>"We seriously need to talk. We're heading into dangerous territories here, and while I appreciate your single-minded devotion to my well being, I need to know I will not have an arrow hanging over my head every time we get inserted to hostile situations."
Do you still hate me that much?

>>3642155
She shaped up nicely, from the backstory and the other times we got her to talk.

>>3642151

>"We seriously need to talk. We're heading into dangerous territories here, and while I appreciate your single-minded devotion to my well being, I need to know I will not have an arrow hanging over my head every time we get inserted to hostile situations."

Time for a heart to heart, she already know we like her.

>>3642151
>>"What is the precise nature of the relationship between you, Dumpling, Morion, and Shamaness?" Damn you Sister for adding another one of the Ten Company Beauties to the mix. But I had to ask this for the boys back home.

>>3642182
we could ask her

"when did you stop wanting to kill me?"

because she clearly doesn't anymore, she doesn't even go for the vitals and have to keep reminding herself to promise to kill us one day.

>>3642151
>"I was hoping to enlist your help in catching our tail. He's clearly someone of influence and wealth in Crook." It had gotten very old, very fast, to have eyes snooping you every day. The last time I had lived in a city was eleven years ago.

Internet was out, DNS stuff

>>3642176
>>3642170
>>3642159
>>3642152
>"We seriously need to talk. We're heading into dangerous territories here, and while I appreciate your single-minded devotion to my well being, I need to know I will not have an arrow hanging over my head every time we get inserted to hostile situations."

Her eyes narrowed. I had a vision of two dagger handles sprouting on my chest. The vision passed. She played with her food. "I won't kill you as long as you are loyal to the Company," she said after a while.

"I am loyal to the Company."

"You are now." A server came by and handed me the platter of fried meat. "How do I know you won't go insane like your ancestor?"

"I am not my ancestor." I could hardly be expected to conquer half of the Known World. "No one is like my ancestor."

"You are proud of him."

I shook my head. She didn't understand. No one was like the Emperor. The things he did defied expectation. "I am not him," I repeated. "And I will never be him. I signed my life into the Company, Hood. I will not betray that oath." I taste tested the mystery meat. I guessed veal.

"As long as you do not betray the Company." She stared defiantly, as if daring me to push further. "Good enough?"

That was all I was going to get from her, at least until she made peace with herself. I knew she didn't want to kill me. I needed her to know, too. "Good enough." She relaxed and started trying out her food.

I took another bite. I wondered how fresh the meat was. It was getting hot in the restaurant.

Hood gasped and dropped her first spoonful of the rice dish she had ordered. "Poison," she hissed, but it was too late. My head was spinning, spinning, spinning...

There was a crash from outside. Shouting. I saw from the corner of my eyes two swordsmen running in, yellow turbans proudly tied around their forehead. Hood did not have her bow, but she had her daggers. I unsteadily rose to my feet.

One of the few benefits of being an Alexandrian is an unnatural resistance to poison. It is not something I tested personally. I was not one of my cousins or uncles or what-have-yous, ingesting poison in small quantities since childhood to become immune. There is a certain irony of a poison-fearing man ingesting poison himself to prevent being poisoned.

For the first time in eleven years, I thanked the Emperor. Then I unsheathed my sword.

>>3642306

Aurelius: Poisoned
Hood: Healthy
>Combat = +100DC [Skilled II +10DC, Unnatural Strength +5DC, Unnatural Endurance +5DC, Unnatural Will +5DC, Divine Bloodline: Imperial Scion +20DC, Elite II +20DC, Poisoned -50DC, Dirty Fighting +15DC, Legionarius II +20DC, Street leather +5DC, Gladius hispaniensis +15DC, Ally: Hood +30DC]
>Armour Value = 10AV [Street leather +10AV]
VS
Thug with Sword
Thug with Mace
Thug with Longsword
Thug with Crossbow
>Combat = +95DC [Healthy +5DC, Skilled I +5DC, Elite I +10DC, Street Survivor +10DC, Dirty Fighting +15DC, Street leather +5DC, Sword +15DC, Thugs x3 +30DC]
>Armour Value = 10AV [Street leather +10AV]

>Personal Combat DC55
>3d100

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>3642309

Rolled 93 (1d100)

Rolled 28 (1d100)

>>3642309

Rolled 77 (1d100)

AV

>>3642314
>>3642317
>2 Success
>Enemy AV - FAIL

The thug with the sword came at me and was rewarded with a splitting headache, courtesy of my ancestral sword. Gladii are not designed with slashing in mind, but they made do in a pinch - and I was definitely in a pinch. The poison did not kill me as it was intended to, but it was going to boggle me until it flushed out of my systems. It would have been simpler had it been an applied poison injected into the bloodstream. My blood was more than capable of fighting poison in its own. I paused to decorate the floor with the content of my stomach. I looked back up in time evade a mace to my face.

Hood was doing well for herself, using her daggers like claws to fight back against the man with the longsword. The idiot had brought a weapon with long reach in a place as crowded as the restaurant. She had scored glancing blows against him already, bloodying her daggers and weakening the swordsman.

Patrons were running like headless chicken, trying to dodge out of the unfolding melee. Some of the others, crime bosses who hadn't forgotten their lower-rung roots, had weapons of their own ready to defend themselves. They weren't about to assist in a stranger's quarrel.

A bolt buried itself against the courtesan behind me with a sick thud. A mace almost took off my nose.

Aurelius: Poisoned
Hood: Healthy
>Combat = +110DC [Skilled II +10DC, Unnatural Strength +5DC, Unnatural Endurance +5DC, Unnatural Will +5DC, Divine Bloodline: Imperial Scion +20DC, Elite II +20DC, Poisoned -40DC, Dirty Fighting +15DC, Legionarius II +20DC, Street leather +5DC, Gladius hispaniensis +15DC, Ally: Hood +30DC]
>Armour Value = 10AV [Street leather+10AV]
VS
Thug with Sword
Thug with Mace
Thug with Longsword
Thug with Crossbow
>Combat = +85DC [Healthy +5DC, Skilled I +5DC, Elite I +10DC, Street Survivor +10DC, Dirty Fighting +15DC, Street leather +5DC, Mace +15DC, Thugs x2 +20DC]
>Armour Value = 10AV [Street leather+10AV]

>Personal Combat DC75
>3d100

>>3642338
Should cross out Thug with Sword

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>3642338

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>3642338

Rolled 39 (1d100)

>>3642338

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>3642338

>>3642354
Thank you anon!

>>3642360
It is my duty as a lurker

Rolled 78 (1d100)

AV

>>3642343
>>3642349
>>3642354
>2 Success
>Enemy AV - FAIL

Even with the crossbowman in my mind and the poison sapping my attention, I easily parried the macer with a chair I grabbed off-hand. It smashed against his arm and made him drop his weapon. Careless. He resorted to raising up an entire table to smash on me, half-eaten meals and all, in an impressive display of strength. I stabbed him up the armpit. He went down with a small grunt.

There was a masculine scream from Hood's way. The familiar sighs of the man in his final death throes. I assumed she had taken care of her man. That left the crossbowman.

Thwuck! Another bolt launched itself toward me.

>3d100

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>3642379

Rolled 39 (1d100)

>>3642379

Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>3642379

>>3642386

It was the last bolt to be shot by that man. I jumped to the floor the moment I heard the sound of wooden shaft being launched, and was rewarded with a shower of some alcoholic drink as the missile shattered the carafe I had ordered.

Hood ended the fight by throwing both of her daggers. The crossbowman fell with a gurgle.

We looked around. The other clients didn't seem too eager to harass us for ruining their evening.

"Yellow turbans," I examined. "Rebel. Looks like Imperial control is slipping."

"They knew we were coming here. Only people who know that are..."

Raindrops' friends and ourselves. I took the hint. "Let's get out of here," I said. It was intolerably hot in here, and my stomach was threatening to upend its content even more.

Somewhere along the way back to the inn, I lost consciousness.

---

When I came to, I was in bed.

"Hey, you're up!" Lee wiped my brow with a cool towel. "Thought you were a deader for sure. Hood said you'd eaten a full plate of the poisoned stuff and ordered another."

I made a sort of inarticulate noise.

"What?"

"Water." My second try was better. Lee handed me a cup of what passed for clean water around these parts. "Emetic?"

"Salt water, with a dash of mustard." The kid had done good.

"You did well," I said. The boy visibly glowed from my praise. I should have done that more often. The worst was clearly over, thanks to Lee's ministrations. All it would take now was rehydration and some rest. "Were we attacked?"

"Only you and Hood, rest of us were on duty or resting. Sergeant is having a talk with Raindrops now. Apparently his friend is Rebel."

"I figured," I said drily. "Question is, why a Rebel would aid Black Company."

"Shamaness and Dumpling are doing their stuff with the blood on your weapons. It will take a while. Crook is very densely populated. My nose could have told them that. I think-"

Any further comment on the stench of Crook's inhabitants was cut off short by a running shout. "A-relly!"

>"Honey, what have I told you about meditent etiquette? No shouting in the patients' premises." That girl was growing more and more impertinent by the month.

>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir."

>>3642429
>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir."

>>3642429
>>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir."

good thing we didn't take Honey there, that would have been a disaster, she probably wouldn't have identified the poison like Hood did

>>3642429

>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir."

>>3642429
>>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir."

>>3642429

>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir

So, did Raindrops sell us out or was he betrayed by his friends? Both seem likely

>>3642682

Well if he did we get to hang him, but Ill bet its just his shady contacts.

>>3642682
I don't think Raindrops is greedy enough to sell us out. He's a greedy thief but ue's the Company's greedy thief

>>3642429
>>"Hello, alligator," I replied, extending my hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry for disappearing on you. I couldn't get you a souvenir."

>>3642441
>>3642443
>>3642461
>>3642524
>>3642569
>>3643763
"Should not have eaten bad stuff," the girl scolded with all the seriousness of the child who knows better than adults. "Picking up dirty from ground makes sick. Crook is dangerous place, said so yourself."

"You're right as usual," I said with mock seriousness to match her own. "Though I seem to remember a certain girl not eating her greens during breakfast and throwing them to Theophilos."

She eeped indignantly. "Theophilos needs more greens than Honey!" she declared. "Greens make good skin. Dumpling says so. And Dumpling has good skin." Her auburn eyes peered over me without fear for my life. They must have not told her I was poisoned. That was some good common sense. The last thing that I needed was Honey being paranoid.

Honey was a good-luck charm for the platoon. More than that, she represented the innocence we had left behind when we joined the Black Company for whatever reasons. I had rescued her from the burning embers of Luoyang from the hands of looters who were thinking of changing their occupation to rapists.

"Hey, A-relly," she said suddenly. "Are you my daddy?"

>"No, just your caretaker." I was not comfortable being called daddy, or father, or any title for the male progenitor of a human being. It's not that I had issues with paternal figures in my life, though my father was a complete failure of a man who died from falling off a horse while he was the Captain of Cavalry. After all, I was no soldier.

>I pretended to have fallen asleep. Honey was growing cunning. To think she would spring a sudden attack like this when I was at my most vulnerable... I was proud of her. It was I who had taught her to wait for the enemy's weakness before attacking. I just didn't expect it to be used against me.

>>3643869
>"No, just your caretaker." I was not comfortable being called daddy, or father, or any title for the male progenitor of a human being. It's not that I had issues with paternal figures in my life, though my father was a complete failure of a man who died from falling off a horse while he was the Captain of Cavalry. After all, I was no soldier.

Denial is a hell of a drug.

>>3643869
>>"No, just your caretaker." I was not comfortable being called daddy, or father, or any title for the male progenitor of a human being. It's not that I had issues with paternal figures in my life, though my father was a complete failure of a man who died from falling off a horse while he was the Captain of Cavalry. After all, I was no soldier.

>>3643878
>>3643882
>"No, just your caretaker." I was not comfortable being called daddy, or father, or any title for the male progenitor of a human being. It's not that I had issues with paternal figures in my life, though my father was a complete failure of a man who died from falling off a horse while he was the Captain of Cavalry. After all, I was no soldier.

Lee, seeing that some real heart-to-heart was about to occur, vacated the premises. He closed the door after him, too, leaving the helpless patient to deal with the onslaught of questions. Bastard. And I had just given him a verbal pat on the head.

Honey considered that for a moment. "So does that mean Dumpling is not my mom?"

"I guess you could say Dumpling is your mom."

"And Hood?"

"And Hood."

"Theo is my uncle?"

A monkey's uncle, maybe. "Yes, he can be your uncle."

Her solemn eyes seemed to bore into my very soul. I shuddered involuntarily. "What are you, Aurelius?" she asked. I cheered internally. I knew she could pronounce my name if she tried.

>"The man who is going to make you eat your greens the moment I get up from bed," I said. She squeaked and ran off to evade my dire warnings of a vegetable-only meal. Freed from the unexpected inquisition, I stretched myself. I smelled half of vomit, half of mustard. At least they had washed me and changed my clothes.

>"I am your other uncle. Like Theophilos." But prettier. I wondered if I should have told her Theophilos was her father instead. But my heart twinged when I imagined Honey running off to the man, calling him "Daddy!" I decided having two uncles was perfectly fine.

>>3643894
>>"The man who is going to make you eat your greens the moment I get up from bed," I said. She squeaked and ran off to evade my dire warnings of a vegetable-only meal. Freed from the unexpected inquisition, I stretched myself. I smelled half of vomit, half of mustard. At least they had washed me and changed my clothes.

>>3643894
>>"The man who is going to make you eat your greens the moment I get up from bed," I said. She squeaked and ran off to evade my dire warnings of a vegetable-only meal. Freed from the unexpected inquisition, I stretched myself. I smelled half of vomit, half of mustard. At least they had washed me and changed my clothes.

na we are daddy yes

>>3643894

>>"The man who is going to make you eat your greens the moment I get up from bed," I said. She squeaked and ran off to evade my dire warnings of a vegetable-only meal. Freed from the unexpected inquisition, I stretched myself. I smelled half of vomit, half of mustard. At least they had washed me and changed my clothes.

One day we will be ready to have her call us father.

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>>3643919
>>3643920
>>3643930
>"The man who is going to make you eat your greens the moment I get up from bed," I said. She squeaked and ran off to evade my dire warnings of a vegetable-only meal. Freed from the unexpected inquisition, I stretched myself. I smelled half of vomit, half of mustard. At least they had washed me and changed my clothes.

I removed the shirt that was clinging on to me. Perspiration had made it sticky, and it felt good to worm my way out of the thing.

"I saw Honey running out, is everything alright?" I looked up from my introspection. It was Shamaness. She was holding a platter on which there was a bowl of something warm and a cup of something cold. "Oh," her hand flitted to her mouth as she noticed my bare chest. "If this is not a good time..."

"Good time as any." I was rested and rehydrated. Ready for action. "Any luck on the scrying?"

"Nope. Too crowded, too many life signatures." She sat on the chair beside the bed and carefully laid the platter on my leg. "I'm not used to cities. There are so many people here!"

"Get used to it," I smiled. My stomach churned when I saw the food. I told myself it wasn't poisoned. "We're going to have a lot of those as we move around."

"And the smell!" That's what happens when you dump a lot of bodies into an ill-planned settlement. The streets were filled with vagrants, refugees who had lost everything in the ongoing war and crawled to this place to die.

I took a tentative spoonful of the gruel and was reassured by the absolute blandness of it. Last night's memories were slowly returning to me. The fight, the grogginess of being poisoned. The conversation I'd had with Hood. The Magal princess, she says you pledged your hand to marriage. Something about giving the horse. I assumed that was euphemism.

Shamaness had started working on patterning her fabric. Always so industrious, that one. The Magal was a hardworking people by necessity. Survival in the Baatur plains was not easy, after all. Her concentration was such that it seemed a shame to disturb her.

But I did it anyway. "Look, the... marriage," I began hesitantly.

>How was I supposed to break it to her? "It was a fluke. An accident. There were cultural and translation errors involved." I hoped she hadn't joined the Black Company because she thought I proposed to her. "I am not actually interested in marrying you." I had barely gotten to the confess-to-the-girl stage. Marriage was just too much of a leap.

>I remembered the night in the yurt. The light in her eyes as I described to her the outrageous flowers of Nanman. How I had wished that my mother were there, so that I could introduce her to her there and then. "I like you. I really do. But I am also promised to another." And gods willing, anothers.

>>3643943
>>How was I supposed to break it to her? "It was a fluke. An accident. There were cultural and translation errors involved." I hoped she hadn't joined the Black Company because she thought I proposed to her. "I am not actually interested in marrying you." I had barely gotten to the confess-to-the-girl stage. Marriage was just too much of a leap.

shit one more? will Aurelios ever stop

>>3643946
I did promise that I would allow two concubines, so a total of three - more than that would be a pain to juggle-write. You don't have to take her, of course.

>>3643943
>>I remembered the night in the yurt. The light in her eyes as I described to her the outrageous flowers of Nanman. How I had wished that my mother were there, so that I could introduce her to her there and then. "I like you. I really do. But I am also promised to another." And gods willing, anothers.

>>3643943
>How was I supposed to break it to her? "It was a fluke. An accident. There were cultural and translation errors involved." I hoped she hadn't joined the Black Company because she thought I proposed to her. "I am not actually interested in marrying you." I had barely gotten to the confess-to-the-girl stage. Marriage was just too much of a leap.
>let's get to know each other first before any decisions are made.

>>3643943
>I remembered the night in the yurt. The light in her eyes as I described to her the outrageous flowers of Nanman. How I had wished that my mother were there, so that I could introduce her to her there and then. "I like you. I really do. But I am also promised to another." And gods willing, anothers.

Wonder how Honey will feel having three mommies

>>3643943
Two questions before anything else

>why did you join the company?

>what is the nature of your relationship with Dampling and Hood?
Out of the 3 she is the most likely to give an answer, Dumpling would deflect and Hood would hurt us.

After that we can say we like her, but I don't want to marry any of them, it would be unfair to the other two.

>>3643957
You can marry all three, I meant to use the term "concubines" to denote non-primary wife like that of eastern potentates of old

>>3643957
Also, after we fonish our discussion I want to ask if Hood is ok, we don't know if she got injured.
And to think she would save Aurelios life, making the huge effort of carrying him all the way to safety, she must be a little confused, or finally accepted she cares.

>>3643957
Ok, I change to this, I kinda pity the girl if she followed us because of that.
Let's bring the 3rd girl into the family.

>>3643957
I like the questions, but make sure to say we like her after it.

Hood is still number 1 though.

>>3643952
>>3643954
>I remembered the night in the yurt. The light in her eyes as I described to her the outrageous flowers of Nanman. How I had wished that my mother were there, so that I could introduce her to her there and then. "I like you. I really do. But I am also promised to another." And gods willing, anothers.

"Of course you are," she said. "I want you to have Hood, too."

"You want- what?"

"I think of her as a sister already," she said matter-of-factly. "I would love to have her as a sister-wife. A single mother can't give Honey the attention she deserves."

The Magal practiced polygamy for reasons practical and cultural. Every baby brought to healthy adulthood increased the strength of the tribe, and men were often in short supply from battle. I had always thought it barbaric and more than a little cruel for one man to take on many different women for himself. Now, I wasn't so sure.

"By sister-wife, you mean..."

"Women bound by marriage to one man, becoming like sisters," she explained. "I've been working on Dumpling. I know she likes you - she told me as much. All that needs doing is for her to be eased into the idea of sharing. Oh, she's like a little girl, that one," Shamaness chuckled. "Doesn't want to let go of her toy. But you are not a toy, are you, Aurelius?"

Her large, doe-like eyes were looking up at me, and there was something more than just the placid Magal princess that I had crushed on. There was confidence in her eyes, a possessiveness that I hadn't seen except in Hood's twisted obsession for my death. Shamaness was raised the most normal of us misfits.

For a given definition of whole. "Build me a harem that would make the Emperor jealous, Aurelius," she purred. "I want Hood. I need Hood. She must become one of my sister-wives. We three are going to have so much fun." I tried to imagine the three of them having fun. I then stopped trying to imagine the lurid scene that unfolded.

"But more than that, I want her to be happy." Her face turned serious. "She is such a poor little thing. I was orphaned too, but I still had the Tribe. She lost everything when her parents died."

>Harem. Multiple wives. Mothers for Honey in the plural. My head spun with the amount of development. I decided to fuck it. "It's a promise," I said. "I'll take Hood in and make her happy." It was about time I stopped screwing around with hesitation when every day could end up with a death.

>"I'm not sure I'm ready to let Honey call me her father," I confessed. "Shamaness, I don't think I can marry you. Or anyone else. I need some time to process all this." One of the reasons I was so cautious was the fact that mortality rate in the Company was high. My first wife's divorce had been rough. I wasn't sure if I could bear another loss.

>>3644200
>>Harem. Multiple wives. Mothers for Honey in the plural. My head spun with the amount of development. I decided to fuck it. "It's a promise," I said. "I'll take Hood in and make her happy." It was about time I stopped screwing around with hesitation when every day could end up with a death.

Honey needs a father, we are no stinking uncle

>>3643957
Couldn't find a way to fit in the questions because I'd started with "about the marriage", sorry

>>3644200

>>Harem. Multiple wives. Mothers for Honey in the plural. My head spun with the amount of development. I decided to fuck it. "It's a promise," I said. "I'll take Hood in and make her happy." It was about time I stopped screwing around with hesitation when every day could end up with a death.

>>3644222
Sure, no problem

>Harem. Multiple wives. Mothers for Honey in the plural. My head spun with the amount of development. I decided to fuck it. "It's a promise," I said. "I'll take Hood in and make her happy." It was about time I stopped screwing around with hesitation when every day could end up with a death.

>>3644200
>Harem. Multiple wives. Mothers for Honey in the plural. My head spun with the amount of development. I decided to fuck it. "It's a promise," I said. "I'll take Hood in and make her happy." It was about time I stopped screwing around with hesitation when every day could end up with a death.

>>3644274
>>3644238
>>3644231
>>3644217
Shamaness left with the empty dishes, leaving me to think my thoughts alone. I was loved. People liked me. And it wasn't because some venator was aiming his crossbow at their heads. I had found a family in the Black Company in all the sense of the word.

Lee popped his head out from behind the door. He was grinning. "Oh, our brothers are going to love this.."

"Can it, Lee." I couldn't keep the grin off my face. Three wives! But I had to take a stand here before some salacious rumours started off."I'll take your precious White Bitch too." That made him disappear faster than a Nisaean horse. Not because he thought my threat was credible, but because he was surprised I knew about his crush. Boys like him are so transparent. Not me, of course. I am the very picture of inscrutability.

I took the rest of the day off, dozing on the bed. When I woke, a wreath had been laid on my head. It was an ugly thing, woven crudely from the sun-starved vines that grew around the Lamprey. The plant was considered a parasitic thing for sapping nutrients off the meagre garden that the innkeeper grew. I resolved to throw it away and give whoever played this prank on me a good caning. Probably Raindrops, that incorrigible bastard.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." Hood was leaning against the window. She smirked when she saw me glare at the wreath. "Honey's handiwork." I placed the beautiful icon of childish innocence back on my head.

"I didn't get to say thank you."

"Don't mention it." She gazed out the window. There wasn't much to see from here, just the ugly walls of other slummy buildings. I supposed that the fact that this inn had glass windows meant it was slightly more luxurious than the others. Another point towards our mysterious Rebel benefactor wielding considerable power, at least in Crook.

"Thank you." I mentioned it. Hood grunted. "Should block the windows," she said, after enough time had passed that I thought that was the end of it. "It's a security flaw."

"It is pretty," I said. That was not quite true. The view outside was miserable, just like the rest of Crook. But it let the sun in.

"Doesn't matter how pretty something is if it weakens you, Imperial," Hood said.

>"Like your island?" Subtle, Aurelius. Like a bull in a china shop. [Pry about her past]

>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3644463

>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3644463

>"Like your island?" Subtle, Aurelius. Like a bull in a china shop. [Pry about her past]

Maybe we should know more about her, but I don't really know if this is the moment or not.

>>3644463
>>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3644463

>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

Its time

>>3644463
>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3644576
She is from a island that got completely pillaged and estroyed because they rebelled

Her family was crucified during said rebellion by Imperial troops.

That lefted her with PTSD and a berserk rage against legionaires and most imperials.

But now for some reason she is starting to like us.

Oh yeah we should tell her that we punched the delegate and that the captain can confirm it. Hood is starting to influence us.

>>3644732
This is good

>>3644463
>>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3644463
"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3644463
>>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

>>3645537
>>3645274
>>3645230
>>3644714
>>3644666
>>3644600
>>3644524
>"But it's pretty." And sometimes, that's all that matters. "Like you." I may have gone a step too far. [Flirt mode: ENGAGED]

"I should have killed you." Her voice had lacked conviction at the best of times. Now it was empty of even hatred. Rote memory compelled her. A vocal habit from a thousand repetitions. "I should have shot you through the head. Womanising pervert. Pig." The words came out like unfeeling soldiers out of a garrison, ugly words out of a pretty mouth. "Playboy. Manwhore. Polygamist. I know I shouldn't give you the time of day. I know better than this."

I didn't say anything. I knew what someone breaking down looked like. For the foundational paradigm of your life to restructure in front of your life is a terrifying thing to behold. Most people I know have one or two things that keep them going in during the storms of life. Hood had her grudge against the Imperials, who had levelled her home and crucified her people. The hatred had kept her going through thick and thin. It was her fire, her raison d'etre.

And I had killed that flame. Poured a huge bucket of water over the embers. Every shot she fired at me was less enthusiastic than the precedent. Every dagger wound, every arrow puncture chipped against her righteous anger. My apparent pacifism in the face of her one-sided violence had induced guilt.

"You should have fought back," Hood said listlessly. Should have and would have are the most frightening words in the world. So I replied with the third most scary thing to say, as agreed upon by the male half of living things. "I love you."

It was a simple sentence. Three magical words that held meaning for most of our wretched kind's existence. The words that saw the birth of lives and the continuation of the human race. It was also terribly cliche, and wholly inappropriate to say to someone going through an identity crisis over not being able to kill you.

But I am not a poet. Let others shake their literary spears and grow garden of words to woo the fairer sex. I have had enough of vacillating through life. There is precious little of life in a man. I could be killed tomorrow, for all I know.

"I love you," I said one more time to the unresponsive Hood, tasting the words as it left my mouth. Gods, I sounded juvenile. The blood of a western goddess of fertility and sexuality is supposed to flow through my great-grandfather's ancestors. I wondered why the sexual magnetism he wielded hadn't trickled down to me.

But it was done. I would not be plagued with indecisive should haves and would haves. Not in this matter.

Third time was the charm. "I love-"

>>3645797

Her fist flew toward me and connected with my right shoulder. I winced. I had pulled a muscle there from the fight. Her fist opened to become a talon, gripping my unshirted chest, and pulled me for a kiss. It had none of the hopeful sensuality of Dumpling's before I fought with the Khagan. Hers was one of catharsis, a kiss that declared her emancipation from the generational grudge. It was a statement of her desire to be free to choose her life.

Mars, I loved her. I really did. I liked Dumpling. The Shamaness I could likely learn to love - I certainly felt responsible for her joining the Company. But I loved Hood. She finally released me from her mouth.

"Welcome to the harem, Trooper Hood."

"You and your fucking mouth." She silenced me once more for one long minute.

---

"Life is good," I declared. "Amazing. Absolutely wonderful."

Theophilos smiled beside me, delighted to find a like-minded comrade at last. The Black Company did not attract the most merry of people. It probably had something to do with the fact that we killed for our money. "The gods are good, Brother Aurelius. I am glad that you feel so lively."

"Fuck the gods," I said happily. "Life - life is what is precious." My spontaneous antitheism put off Theophilos. He returned to his cup.

We were keeping watch on the ground floor of the Lamprey Soup. Standard Black Compay paranoia. Sergeant didn't trust whoever booked us the lodging, now that he had showed his hand in attacking me. He also didn't know anywhere else we might take up rooms in. So he made us keep an eye out on the ground floor, where the bar/restaurant of the Lamprey Soup was located. Sister and Trevain were watching the windows, in case they crawled up the side and got in through the windows.

Theophilos was sipping quietly on his fourth cup of the swill the innkeeper brewed. His job was to ward off strangers getting overly familiar with us. One look at him sipping at his drink sent most ruffians running. I contented myself with the slightly muddy-tasting water. One cup of that semi-alcoholic mud had been enough.

Raindrops looked at me thoughtfully. "When you think about it, it was me that put you and Hood together. Those men that attacked you? They proved the bond between the happy couple. I was an agent of Astarte." He looked at his hands in amazement. "Could I be an angel of love?"

>"Your words show wisdom, Brother Raindrops. I forgive you of all your transgressions against me and myself." Love had made me irrational.

>"Good try, Raindrops. But no." He still owed me for almost getting me killed, damn his twisted logic.