Of Beasts and Knights

"The same person who plans to make new recruits of enemy citizens, and then needs to arm those citizens?"

Heigen: "Those others in the square? He'd have given them swords scavenged from the dead and used them as cannon fodder."

"there aren't enough swords here to have given to them"

"Cannon fodder can go without blades. The front rank dies the second rank picks up theirs."

"...great..."

"It works."

"Then why don't you make it for me?"

"Scuse me?"

"You're a smith"

*Sighs* "So you want me to... fine, fine."

"What?"

"I'll make you some bloody armour."

"You're such a good friend" *good-natured, mocking grin*

"I will tear your gods damned arms off"

"You remember physical pain doesn't phase me that much right?"

"I know. But it'll be funny, and it'll make me feel better."

"greeeaaaat"

"Well then, go off and find me some steel. Lots of it."

she shrugs and goes

*he's waiting for her in the blacksmith*

she comes back, tugging a cart full of steel from various armour and weapons and things

"Right, good enough"

"lets get to it then"

"How much weight can you carry?"

*insert above average amount here*

"We'll work on that."

"Right..."

"We'll make you a breastplate. Add the rest as you get stronger."

"Right"

"If armour can't stop a bullet its not worth you having it."

"Right"

*he starts rummaging through the cart of steel, then takes out five breastplates.* "Should do..." *he stacks them one on top of another, and dumps them in the forge.*

she sits back and watches

*he heats the steel, and beats it flat, heats it, and beats it flat. He folds it, and beats it flat. he looks over at rosa, then back to the glowing steel, then to rosa, then the steel. Soon she can see a breastplate taking shape. the flat section of one at least. Then, he starts to hammer the curve into the plate. turning it into one solid piece of armour. Then he heats the steel again, and takes up a pair of shears, and cuts off strips of plate from the bottom.*

she keeps watching

*he works the metal with obvious skill, and because i honestly cant think of any more fancy words to describe the creation of a breastplate, i'll just skip to its completion.*

*Heigen pulls the plates of metal from the quenching trough with his gauntleted hands, diving them into the still bubbling oil. Eight plates in total. A main back, and breastplate, and three segmented plates for her abdomen and lower back.* "It'll need leatherwork."

*The plate is dark, stained by the oil he quenched it in. And thick. Four times as thick as empire plate at least. In order to accommodate some of rosa's more... aesthetic gifts from the gods, the upper portion of the plate is formed with a ridge, sloping from the slightly raised gorget, down to a line drawn from just below the arm hole, then sloping down towards the segmented abdomen plates, there is a second ridge, vertical this time. The combination of these two ridges, form a sloped profile for the armour, increasing its effective thickness, and chance for blades to glance off.*

"Thanks"

"Don't break it."

"No promises"

"I won't make you another."

*The Raid had gone to plan, the guardsmen had set fire to a beastmen encampment without being detected. Beastmen were running all over the place, desperate to date their list for revenge and his fellow guardsmen had escaped. However the spirits of the forest are malicious bastards and a pair of dryads decided to cut Talsyn off from his unit. Alone with beastmen at his back and angry tree ladies to his front. The elf decided to cut them down, and so he did only in doing so he took numerous wounds and caught the attention of a rather angry and particularly pissed off pair of beastmen*

the first one bellows loudly, brandishing a pair of large axes

*He roars his own challenge and presents his shield with spear at the ready*

it charges forwards, head first, intent on bashing his sheild away with its horns

*The Elf sidesteps the charge and brings the blade round in a wide arc, catching the beasts leg and severing it’s tendon*

it yelps at that, as the other one goes for him with a spear

*He surges forward and bats it aside with his shield before plunging his own spear into its gut*

the gor just bellows at him, grabbing a hold of his spear so he can't remove it. it then punches him, hard. hard enough that he loses consciousness....

/later\

the beasts almost drag the bound elf slave with them through the gate of the bretonnian city, the walls and such defaced with chaos iconography