The Story of Souls: A Sweboz AAR

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Eleven: Counter-Attacks (Part Two)
(From the Runic book:)
Autumn 615AD
Well as the march continues east, we continue to reclaim the lands devastated by the Khazar demons. What we see left behind us is a land devastated utterly. Villages burned, men, women, and children killed, enslaved or eaten, graveyards despoiled and the corpses raised for use in the Khazar armies. In short, scenes that should NEVER been seen upon this world are playing out right before our eyes. In fact just yesterday we came across the ruins of a rather large village that even had a wall. From the remains of the footprints it seems that the only real attack came from the village's graveyard. So it seems in a cruel twist these people were killed AND EATEN by their own formerly dead kin and kith. Many of the sights that i am seeing right now will never leave the shrouds of my mind. I can only pray that we do not suffer the same fate.

Three weeks later:
Just another day of killing and butchery it seems, although this time it is US butchering Khazars.
The day began with our armies forming up before another oncoming horde of Khazar filth.

Our new general, Fredulaz, had the chance to prove that he was not a fool. The Slavs were led by a woman named Alicja. She is one of the most powerful chieftains of all the Poles. She is also a surprisingly young and rather pretty woman as well, with a bright and clear laugh, pretty brown eyes and an upbeat attitude in spite of all of the chaos around her.....
Err, but i digress. The Khazars used their usual tactics, that is none at all, and hurtled forward into our ranks.

General Fredulaz also march our men forward at double step to get into position faster.

He then took almost all of the cavalry towards the outer flank of the Khazar horde while he ordered us to march towards the center. As he managed to get around the Khazar army, he was engaged by several rearguard units including a unit of VERY heavy Khazar cavalry.

However as we engaged the Khazar right, they began to outflank us in several locations.

We soon saw why, because apparently the Khazar warlord was trying to move around OUR flanks as well but the move made by our general had thrown him off guard. So he did the only thing he could, or so we thought, he charged straight into us.

However it was right about then that we noticed something. The enemy had encircled us while we have focused on the warlord.

As the noose drew tighter, we we crushed, closer and closer together, with many of our number falling. In fact one man next to me had his head split open by a thrown war axe. However our cries of pain and death did not go unnoticed, for the general had turned his head and lead his cavalry back into the fray, to rescue us.

Meanwhile Alicja and her army were in a fierce fight against the center and left of the Khazar army.

She look as if she was having a grand time with it. Her forces drove all before them, causing huge swaths of undead to fall over aflame, or too ruined to fight anymore.
However or situation was only starting to get better as the general's timely charged saved our forces from total destruction.

Of course the Khazar pig fled for his filthy life, just like the dog he is.

And with that bit of slaughter the battle ended, with another victory for us.

And the armies are soon to start their eastward march once again. We break camp tomorrow. I can only hope that it is not another bloody day as this was.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Eleven: Counter-Attacks (Part Three)
(From the Latin book:)
Autumn 615AD
I have finally gotten sick of these idiotic raids on our coastal territories. Why just last week my legionaries repulsed a rather huge one, causing the Vandals many casualties. Since the 'High Command' simply refuses to move troops, i have invaded North Africa, to cease these raids once and for all. As our recent battle has pretty much cleared the coasts for miles it was not hard to land an army in Mauritania. We have retaken Tingis from the weak Vandal garrisons. In fact this whole region seems to be under populated, made up of mostly Berber tribesmen, rather than Vandals. But i suspect that this will change as we move eastwards along the coast.

Winter 615AD
Well i can tell that winter has come to this area, because instead of me boiling alive in my armor everyday i am only roasting alive. I am also cleaning my sword, for the Vandals have proven that they have plenty of fight left in them, for today we faced a large army of Vandal troops in the grasslands of Northern Africa.
The battle began as we formed up into our standard line, the Vandals came marching in a column formation towards our army.

Since they seemed dead set on hitting the center of our amry this way i sent my cavalry around the left flank of their army.

As the cavalry began to encircle them, their army broke its column formation and formed up into a line, all the while under fire form my archers and legionaries.

Meanwhile my cavalry had begun attacking at their flanks, this got their attention really quickly. They sent half of their cavalry after mine.

However there seems to have been a severe drop in the quality of the main Vandal armies over the past two centuries, for my cavalry beat theirs quite handily, killing many and forcing what few remained to flee for their lives.

At this point as well the main armies had already engaged and tore the weaker Vandal infantry to pieces and forced nearly half of their army to flee for their pathetic lives.

What few remained in the fight were quickly outmatched, surrounded and forced from the field.

Our forced had carried the day with great ease.

We will soon march on the next town along the coast, Sigilum. While we probably have broken the Vandal armies for many miles, i suspect that things will not go as well as we are hoping. But then again that is the way of war, so it is to be expected.

[julius_caesar_the_first]

My curiosity is getting to me so I just have to ask: what is happening to that big bad daemon in the desert?

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Well the big baddie and our Roman general are going to start working rather closely together soon enough.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Well everyone its about that time again. I need the .Orgs help with this act.
I need help figuring out what imma gonna do with the Khazars. I mean i have several ideas but most of them seem like Hunnic repeats and i dont want this thing to get stale.
So imma give u the basic layout and you guys can feed me fresh ideas k?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well the basic story is that after this little set of counter-attacks the Khazars suddenly swarm back over the river in such number as has never been seen on this Earth before.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is of course do to the Daemon in the desert lending some of its horrific powers to them in order to allow its takeover to be far easier.

Also if you havent guessed it by now

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Alicja and our German narrator are gonna fall in love and get married.

I just need a way to make the fighting with the Khazars more interesting.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Twelve: Breakdown
(Again somewhere in the desert unknown to our narrator.)
????
It was still working at Its wall prison when suddenly It heard something snap within the magic encircling it. Then, just as quickly the magic receded from around It. The magics then flowed into the corrupted pool of water, proceeding to purify it completely. But at that point It didnt care all that much. It was finally FREE!! Free to do as it pleased after nearly 3400 years of imprisonment. It almost blew It's cover right there by letting out a tremendous roar of triumph. But at the last second Its reasoning kicked in and It began to look for as much power as It could get Its hands on. The black energies flowed from nearly everywhere and anywhere. As Its powers began to return to full strength It laughed a truly hellish and sickening laugh. Then It began to look around for as many victims as It could find, and begin a new army to take over the Earth. There wasnt very much to work with in this desert, It could clearly sense that. However It also sensed that to the north there were some more puny beasts that It could manipulate and enslave.
To the far north and east It also sensed something else, a HUGE group of beasts already under the influence of true demons. So It began to feed Its powers towards that area and hopefully pick up the armies of puny beasts to do Its bidding as well.

(From the Runic book:)
Summer 616AD
Well we have finally reached the Vistula, again. Even though we had to go through yet ANOTHER huge wave of undead beasts, we finally have managed to secure the border with the steppes once again.

The good news has been sent back to the capital. And some other good news has come back up from there as well, well for me at least. I have been assigned to be the head ambassador for the Polish tribes, and even be a general of the army in this region, although that function of my role here will be down played. Well at least i get to stay and help these people. And of course Alicja...

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Thirteen: Whispers of Power and Death(Part One)
(From the Latin book:)
Autumn 616AD
Well we are finally nearing Caesarea, after nearly five months of marching we will be within sight of the walls tomorrow. I have seen many strange things on the way here. And form what i can tell the Vandals have horrifically abused their power during their stay here. While most of the area that we have passed through so far have been unpopulated, many times we have seen the people come out of their homes and support us with water, food and other gifts. In fact in one village the entire populace came out of their homes and bowed before us next to the ruins of the road we were traveling on. Since it was the nearing nightfall i decided that we would camp out on the other side of the village. When i went to meet with the village elder, he proclaimed me a savior as soon as i told him who i was. I asked him why. And then we got into a bit of a drawn out discussion. Ill write down what i remember.
"Why is it that i am a savior?",i asked the old man. "Because you have come to save us from the persecution of the heathen Vandal filth, havent you?", he said to me. "Well yes i have but i was expecting a bit more support from the populace for the Vandals, not my army.",i said to him. At that he burst out laughing. He continued laughing for nearly a minute before i got angry and yelled,"WHAT is so funny?!?!" With that he calmed down and said,"My Lord, the Vandals have butchered and abused the people of these lands for many, many years. The only ones that they support are themselves, because they are Arian heretics. I know that you know of the Purge of Carthage correct?" "What purge?", i asked him,"We have never heard of any purges in North Africa." "Well it is a rather long story, so i think you had best come inside before night fully sets in. It gets cold out here at night.", he said. As i followed him inside i noticed that for a village elder he didnt have much in the way of wealth. He must have noticed this for the next thing he said was,"Well no the Vandals do NOT treat all of their subjects with equal measure. My grandfather was a wealthy man before the Purge, and now this is all that my family is reduced to." He looked around with a great bitterness. "But",he eventually sighed,"that's not why you are here. No you need to hear of the Purge, and to be honest im surprised that you havent. Im sure that word of nearly 2 million people dying in a period of twenty months would cause great outrage within the rest of the civilized world." I looked at him aghast, disbelieving what i had just heard. "T..two million?!?", i exclaimed. "Yes, all good Catholic or Donasts that did not convert to Arianism when the Vandals took over. You see for many years after the invasion, the Vandals had been persecuting all non-Arian people under their rule here. Many of their kings had tried to get people to convert, but most of us were not stupid. We knew that what their priests preached was a major corruption of the teachings of Christ. But they continued and levied sanction upon all of those that didnt convert.", he began. "After about 40 years or so, the first of their kings, Dosarin, died of old age, and his eldest son Geiseric came to the throne. He was a powerful man, the force of his will was Titanic, many proclaim it was something akin to Julius Caesar. His first acts were to try and divide the Catholics against the Donasts, something his father simply wasnt cunning enough to try. After about ten years of this policy and VERY heavy use of manipulation, he succeeded. He had also managed to gather almost ALL of the Vandal nobles that usually hinder the king's policies around him and even got Donasts to attack us Catholics from time to time. However he still wasnt satisfied and wanted both sides out of his way so that he could have complete control over Africanus.", he continued. "And so, at least this is what we think happened, in 454AD he manipulated the leaders of both of his enemies into fighting each other, and this quickly spread throughout their ranks. As the situation neared civil war, the Vandals stepped in and offered to mediate. We told them to piss off. That was our last mistake This allowed King Geiseric to 'force' his hand and attack us", he told me. "Thus began the Purge of Carthage the next year. All non-Arians and enemies were killed or forced to flee. And it did not stop there. All over the kingdom, Catholics and Donasts were being killed, or forced to flee by those that still had a conscience. What remained of our peoples fled west across the Cithili River. Out of 5 million that started the journey, barley 3 million completed it.",he said as he finished his story.
At this point i was stunned silent. How did we not noticed two million deaths??? Of course as i worked it over in my brain i realized that this was during the same time that the second great plague of the Boiled Blood was occurring during the reign of Almianus the Mad. We were near a civil war of our own at that point at probably could not have intervened even if we had known about it. Of course the 'story' that we had gotten from the court was something about Berber rebellions and nomad raids, being responsible for the shift of the population westward.The elder then went on to tell me that in the 150 intervening years, the Vandals had filled out the Province of Africanus with nearly pure Arian people, allowing him them to dominate the majority of the good farmland in the Kingdom. The only real remaining good land had been the area around Tingis, which the Vandal Nobles, concentrated in the east didnt really care about at the time, even though Geiseric had tried to get them to get those lands as well. After he had died of blood poisoning ten years later, most of the Vandal kings after him were idiots and fools, allowing the nobility to dominate the runnings of the Kingdom. However about thrity years ago and Vandal noble that was fleeing from the wrong end of a blood feud decided to take Tingis for his own. Using pure force he had succeeded.
I am going to have this news sent back to the Senate at once for this is something that simply cannot go ignored.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Thirteen: Whispers of Power and Death (Part Two)
(From the Latin book:)
Winter 616AD
Well it is finally done. Caesarea has fallen to our forces at last.
We began in the morning. The city has been much changed from what our records show it looked like 300 years ago. But we began our assault anyways.

The enemy inside were well aware of our attack and there were a lot of them. We began by sending up a huge force onto the least defended parts of the walls.

The hope was to surround the enemy and force them to flee. However, they managed to shift enough forces to block our attempts from the sides. So i was forced to send the Auxilia Palantia in from the front.

And still they successfully resisted our advance, they even managed to inflict large causalities on the Auxilia Palantia. It wasn't until the sappers managed to collapse the pathways and walls to the left of the gatehouse, that the flow of enemy reinforcements stopped.

And even THEN the Vandal scum managed to resist my forces.

I had to send nearly all of the Auxilia that had come with my army to defeat them.

It took all of these forces to break the enemy on the walls. However, once we had pushed the enemy off of the walls, i ordered my archers up, and they began to rain hell upon the Vandal scum. We managed to kill a lot of them before they finally got the message and fled for the square.

But even then the Vandal scum did not give up. Once out of our range of the archers on the walls, they attacked us again. We had to fight inch by bloody inch up the central hill, towards the square.


Even after we broke their lines twice they simply escaped regrouped AND CAME BACK FOR MORE.
It took us killing their general to finally force them back to the square.

And even then they still fought. I went up to their lines and personally offered them surrender and safe passage. The threw a spear at me. We charged our cavalry at what was left of their lines, expecting to break them to pieces. Instead we were halted and even flung back.

I had to order my infantry in to finally finish these lunatics off.

But in the end victory was mine.

The battle was brutal, the carnage massive, but the glory, oh the glory. I have restored the first piece of Africanus to the Empire. When the Senate and High Command received the news, they chastised me for abandoning my command and demanded that i return to Rome for punishment. Those idiots are out of their minds. Im conquering a RICH province and bringing it back into the Imperial fold, how the **** is this a BAD thing?!?!?!
Uggh i swear, this kind of **** is getting to me, because i am starting to hear voices. They whisper things to me, like i need to forget those useless fools, and do things my way. At this point i completely agree with them. Wait... what the hell am i saying? I agree with voices in my head now? Dammit i need to get some sleep.

[Vasiliyi]

WOW, ok so i didn't read it completely, but i skimmed through the pages and boy am impressed with your persistence to keep this aar going. The fact that you use EB, and then BI is well, unheard of. Your aar is the most unique one ive seen so far. (and i read all of them) Very cool Olaf, keep it up.

On a side note, seeing all those BI units gets me going, is there any mod which is atleast barely comparable to EB in its representation of that time period?

[Olaf Blackeyes]

To all of my readers:
I would like to thank you for reading my story for so long.
@ Vasiliyi Try Invasio Barbarorum. Its awesome

[everyone]

huzzah! I am pleased to announce that I have finally finished reading the entire story as I have originally not noticed it until now and decided to unlurk from just reading and post on how epic this is!

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Sorry that it is taking me so long to finish this chapter everybody, but ive recently found an EXCELLENT website that hosts free anime in full length, and i LOVE anime. Admittedly its the Japanese versions with English subs so i gotta read fast but still.
In fact just yesterday i finished watching Elfen Lied, ****ing EXCELLENT series BTW. Im enjoying myself a bit too much right now.
So on that note does anyone know any other good animes that i havent watched? Ill list all of the ones that i have watched for your benefit so that you dont name any that i have already seen.
1. Cowboy Bebop
2. NGE
3. Trigun
4. Blue Sub Six
5. Death Note
6. about half of all of the Gundam Wing series that they've made
7. Currently working on Code Geass on AS so yeah
8. Tenchi Muyo (The First Series)
9. Dragon Ball
10. DBZ
11. Dragon Ball GX
12. Currently working on Bleach on AS so yeah
13. Yu-gi-Oh
14. A lot of One Piece but thats been thrown off the airwaves now so i gotta find it again
15. Some of Sailor Moon as a kid, but that was mostly for the transformation sequences
16. A lot of Pokemon but thats gotten stupid now
17. Blood +
18. Wolf's Rain, also a kick *** series
19. Yu-Yu Hakusho (Spelling??)
And thats all that i can remember. Please help a guy out.

[Owen Glyndwr]

Have you tried Ruroni Kenshin/Samurai X? Those are pretty good (I like them)

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Ive pretty much watched all of the animes on AS since 2001, Ruroni Kenshin i have seen, now Samurai X i have never heard of. Whats it about?

[Owen Glyndwr]

Ive pretty much watched all of the animes on AS since 2001, Ruroni Kenshin i have seen, now Samurai X i have never heard of. Whats it about?

Samurai is a four-part (?) mini-series dealing with Kenshin before the events of Ruroni Kenshin. It talks about the Meiji Rebellions, including how he got that scar of his. Much gorier, cool action scenes.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Thirteen: Whispers of Power and Death (Part Three)
(From the Latin book:)
Winter 616AD
This land must be insane!!! Today my scouts reported back from the area around the Cisesla Gap ((My name for the gap in the Atlas Mountains)) with VERY disturbing reports. Apparently the countryside has been obliterated in the area by, if the locals are to be believed, huge hordes of demons. As we march into the area in two weeks, i can only hope that these stories are untrue, for we need to march through the region, and if there are no supplies left to go on then we are going to have to take another route.
And i swear hat this damn land is starting to make me go crazy. These stupid voices will NOT shut up now, even when im sleeping. Ugh what i wouldnt give to be able to go back to my villa in Hispania and take a nice long stint in the baths. But i have a province to conquer, and my destiny to find.

Spring 617AD
Well it seems that the reports of demons out here are really true, especially when im cleaning their blood off of my sword. We suffered an attack of demons and slave soldiers today. It was one right out of the stories of Attila, except without horsemen.
The attack began as we were marching through a valley in the sands. They appeared above us in vast numbers.

Many of the men did not know what was happening as the scouts cried out in alarm. It was only extreme discipline that allowed me to get them to form up before the demons and slaves descended on us. And there were a LOT of them.

Were do nearly 15,000 soldiers come from in the middle of the DESERT?!?!?!?! I mean seriously i cant understand when stuff like this happens out on the steppes were there is grass, water and food to steal, but in the desert?? But anyway i knew that if i did not act quickly my men would be surrounded and cut down. So i got all of the cavalry that i could together and rode around the flank of the enemy.

As i did the enemy slowed their advance to deal with my group and i managed to get a good look at them. Many of them looked as if they had been starved or were already dead, and think back there might actually have been risen amongst them now that i think about it. But at the back of the group was a small number of demons that had fire sprouting from different places on their bodies, plus they looked healthy. They carried swords and shields, unlike the sorry weapons of the men that they led. So i hit them first.

As my cavalry attacked they panicked and turned many slaves around to try and get me. Thus the legionaries and footmen were able to advance.

i almost destroyed the demon commander in the first charge but some spearmen came after us and we had to fall back. Meanwhile the fighting between my soldiers and the slaves was rather getting bloody, especially for the Foderati. Many of them were being too brave and charging into obvious traps in attempts to destroy as many slaves as they could. While we control whom they fight, it seems that their barbarian blood still shines through when confronted by enemies, as i have barley been able to contain them this far. However whatever damage that they did to the Foderati, we paid back to them in spades and droves.

Really the fight went out of the enemy when i brutally put down their commanding demon, and the battle was won.

But still i have to wonder, HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!? This is something that anyone would expect out of the steppe peoples, not in the lifeless desert. I guess there is much more to this place than meets the eye.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Fourteen: Bleeding River
(From the Runic Book:)
Summer 617AD
Well here i am again, the Ormor River. It seems that they will never end, will they? Just two days ago those Khazar bastards attacked across the river again. And, true to form, there were nothing but masses of undead in this army as well.
As the battle began the commander in charge of our forces thought that our foes were disorganized coming out of the woods, so he ordered our forces to attack them before they could get organized. And as the battle got underway, we quickly began to cut holes into their battle line.

However the deeper in we got, the harder it became to maneuver and soon enough we were becoming out-flanked.

Meanwhile, at least as far as i could tell, the Polish forces were fighting whatever cavalry the Khazars had brought with them.

Our good general sent the Poles a message to come to our aid immediately. And after that had gotten out, once again the wretches decided to try and take us down once and for all. Within five minutes we had been surrounded completely and the archers that had been guarding our backs had been forced to quit the field.

At that point the fight got gruesome, and everywhere i looked we had become surrounded by the wretches. I watched as men got ripped apart by these beasts, i myself was nearly gored by an undead monstrosity that looked like something out of Hel's domain itself. Thankfully it missed me and instead hit one of its own brethren, allowing me the time to kill it properly. But the fight was slowly closing around us.

And then the good general fell. The entire line was thrown into a total panic, whether by demon magics or just the fact that we were getting slaughtered. Many began to flee right then and there.

However as this was happening the Poles were racing across the field, trying to save our crumbling forces.

But i could tell that they werent advancing fast enough, the enemies heaviest cavalry was slowing them down and killing a good number of them as well. At this point many of the remaining men began to flee in the hopes of surviving this debacle. However, by some insane miracle, an entire unit of heavy warriors had somehow been flung out of the conflict onto a large rock right above the enemy warlord. Wasting no time they immediately jumped down and began to destroy his bodyguard demons before they knew what was happeneing.

In so doing they killed the enemy general and many of the demons controlling the undead and wretches as well.

This shattered any organization within the enemy army as well. That combined with the Poles finally arriving and hitting the wretches flank hard, forced them to flee. And the day was ours.

But in the end nearly half of our army was slaughtered by these wretches, and there are more reports of enemy attacks still to come.

[snude]

Just read the whole thing, consider me a new reader

[HunGeneral]

Nice updates. Good to see this go on

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Fifteen: Invasion
(From the Runic book:)
Autumn 617AD
It would seem that these bastard scum have indeed outmaneuvered us. Two weeks ago our command received a report of large scale attacks to the north. Since i am the only surviving authority figure on this front, once again, i lead our troops north to deal with the scum. However when we got there i found only masses of wretches and undead. It only took about a week to deal with the threat, but upon arriving back at the town of Tlicheozes, our base, i found it in complete ruin. A Polish survivor that we found in the ruins managed to tell us what had happened before he lost his mind completely.
As i found the man laying in the bed, he was shaking like he had just seen the inside of Hel's domain. "What happened warrior?", i asked him. "All that i can remember", he began,"was watching your army head north to fight. After that i went to the tavern for a drink after my watch was over." He began hacking up blood at this point. After about a minute of coughing he continued,"I got really drunk so i cant remember much. But... i do remember that the next afternoon", he said as he coughed up more blood,"all of the guards began to roar at everyone in the tavern to grab their weapons and get outside on the double, because we were under attack. At first i didnt know what was going on, because i have a bad tendency for the drink my lord, and i had been drunk all day. But then as i managed to get my head together, i realized that your army was gone, and that if the camp was under attack, so was ours." He stopped here to catch what breath he had left. "I managed to find a warrior that had been with the garrison army and i asked him what happened to them," he continued. "He told me that they had gone to repel what they had though was a raid. When they got there, within ten minutes they had been obliterated. Then the poor bastard broke down completely and just killed himself", he said.




"Then i heard screaming coming from the eastern gate. Oh gods the screams......",he trailed off and started to hack up blood again. After he calmed down, he continued,"As i approached the walls, all i could hear was a pounding sound, so i assumed that it was a ram. It wasn't. After only a minute the ENTIRE wall went up in black flames. What i saw next.......".
At this point he stopped talking and suddenly began screaming, begging the Gods to make it stop. He then began to writhe around, as if in agony. The next thing we knew, he sprang up and crushed his own skull in on the wall overhang next to us, before anyone could stop him. By the time i got to him he was dead. We all sat there stunned for nearly two minutes before i got my mind working again. I immediately ordered a seer to send a message of alarm back to the court and get them to raise the levies.
I then went over the list of commands in the area to call for help from. Only three were present, mine, the command under General Polickea, and.....Alicja's. At that point my mind went off its rocker, yes i guess i have to admit to myself that i am head over heels for the woman. But i knew that if i was to save her command i would have to hurry before they hit the town of Biskupin ((yes its a famous Iron Age Polish town, get over it)), were she was stationed with her command.
However it took my forces nearly a week to get to the place, for nearly all of the earth, roads and even villages that lay between us and the town were obliterated. We had to fight many forces of undead along the way, these had been left behind as distractions for our forces, and very determined distractions at that.
By the time we finally got to the damned place we were too late, it had been obliterated. I immediately ordered a search to be conducted. The bodies of slain innocents were scattered everywhere, among them were those of a large group of Polish warriors. As we searched the wreckage, we managed to find Alicja under a collapsed building still alive. I thanked all of the Gods at that point and got her some immediate care. She is in my tent now, resting as i write this. As we put our armies back together, i can only hope that we all recover from this madness.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

To all of my readers:
I would like to apologize for the lack of updates recently, but RL has become a lot less free for me. That and the fact that another idea burned its way out of my head at last. If anyone wants to read that story here a link to it.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=123793
Again, sorry and ill try to update this story tonight.
((plz tell me what you think of the other story btw))

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Ok so maybe it wasnt tomorrow but here we go.

Chapter Sixteen: Watching the World Burn
(From the Runic book:)
Late Autumn 617AD
We're doomed. Quite simply my incompetence as a commander has doomed my entire army to slaughter. Looking back, I guess that my victories over the undead and slave soldiers had made me overconfident going up against the main horde of the Khazar filth.
Ten days ago i lead what was left of our combined forces towards the forests, hoping to find help and maybe even aid. However, what we found was the tail end of the main Khazar horde. Many of the few remaining sub leaders of my band begged me to have us retreat, begged for us to just go and hide so that they would pass on. I should have listened.
But i decided that since this was just a vanguard, it would be safe to attack them before the main body could come for us. We formed up quickly but somehow they spotted us before we were ready. They slammed into our unprepared line with such vigor and rage that many men were simply vaporized by the sheer power of both their black magics and their swords.


After five minutes i ordered my men to flee, i knew that we were doomed.

If the attack was brutal, the rout was inhuman. We were slaughtered left, right, and out the middle.

In the end nearly all of my main force was slaughtered. Barley 3000 made it out alive. The Poles fared little better, with 4500 of their men escaping the killing fields. Out of 55000 warriors, barely 7500 lived to tell the tale. We have retreated to Biskipun to make our final stand. Thankfully we managed to rebuild the town into some semblance of order after the Khazars destroyed it. We have sealed off the only landward entrance, in anticipation of the Khazars arrival. As i look out the window, i see the world around this lake burning, in spite of the fact that this land has already been ravaged to the point of desolation, these bastards still manage to find stuff to burn. What scouting reports we have received tell us that its mostly undead attacking us, but it seems that the same vanguard that beat us to the ground is also here. I dont have much time left, but i do have one more thing to say before i go. To whomever finds this codex, please pass it onto my family. If they live, they are of the High House Swielexae. Im sorry but i have no more time.



Sorry for the long *** wait but school has been insane over the past two months and it doesnt look like its getting any better any quicker. Dont expect daily updates anymore.

[gamegeek2]

...still going? Keep it up! Wish I could, but I think EB II and AtB are more important.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

I want my readers to answer something for me.
Is my writing bad? Do i have horrible pacing/timing of events?
Would someone plz comment and tell me if i should stop or something?

[johnhughthom]

Keep it up as long as you are enjoying writing it, it has been going too long to give up because you think people aren't reading it. The majority of AAR readers are lurkers, personally I only post at the beginning of AARs to let people know I'll be reading, as I hate to clutter AARs up with irrelevant posts (and I know others feel the same). I thought this was dead and was glad to see it back, it's a different read from the rest of the AARs on the forum.

[HunGeneral]

If you like it then keep on going if it becomes a too great strain then stop or take a break - you decide. I myself also believed this was dead and am Happy to see it return. I agree with johnhughthom about most readers being lurkers.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Sixteen: Passion and Sparks
(From the Runic book:)
(However we see that this entry is not in runic but in a proto-slavic script)
Winter 617AD
My name is Alicja ru Elesa. I probably shouldn't have taken this tome from it intended author but after four months of being laid up like this im bored out of my skull. But reading through this, i find it to be entertaining to say the least. The owner of this tome, Jurzalez, has been one of the few people that i have been able to depend upon since my grandfather was killed by those bastard Khazars at the start of this horrible war. The entries that he has written within his tome have proven that he has worked himself near enough to death. Killing so many different undead, horde slaves and even Khazars themselves, im amazed that he hasn't broken under the strain, what with him being a simple emissary and all.
But the most surprising thing ive read in this journal are his professions of love....for me. Its actually kind of a nice feeling to have someone actually admire you rather than fear you. Most of the men that i have been proposed to by over the seasons usually fled screaming after only a few days. This is probably the first time ive ever actually had a man stay by my side for so long and actually have these feelings for me. Its a nice feeling really. But ill just have to wait and see how this develops.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

To all of the readers here:
I have decided to transfer this story onto the TWC site as well. Here is the link.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...96#post5724396

[Azathoth]

Well, to be honest, your writing is a bit unpolished and repetetive, and sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between characters.

I only read a bit of that alternate timeline story you linked to, but I was honestly surprised by how much cleaner everything was.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Well, to be honest, your writing is a bit unpolished and repetetive, and sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between characters.

I only read a bit of that alternate timeline story you linked to, but I was honestly surprised by how much cleaner everything was.

Well this was my very first AAR so yeah thats no surprise.