For a hamlet the size of this one, there was an inordinate number of people milling about. What would usually support perhaps ten to twenty families was strained to its limits with a throng of people filing slowly toward the largest home in the row. The humble house had been converted to a makeshift recruiting station for the Empire, and the brightly dressed captains of Karl Franz's army were quickly filing paperwork for enlistees into a stout chest of iron and oak wood behind their crude station.
"Oy, next? Next!"
Anaestari marveled at the disorganized rabble that had presented itself to the recruitment. Men, dwarves, and an occasional elf had lined up to join with the Empire here, and by the looks of the lot of them the war wasn't progressing as well as could be hoped. Many of the people there had seen too many winters to fight for long, if at all, and even more had not seen enough.
"Quite a sight, ain't it?"
A dwarven woman, barely as high as her stomach, shifted from one heavy boot to the next beside her. She was not accustomed to dwarves; the relations between dwarves and elves was often strained at best, but the dimunitive woman seemed to lack no cheer for the elf when she smiled up to her.
"Belmarra's me name. Quite a sight, ain't it?"
She shook the dwarf woman's hand lightly. "Anaestari."
"Sorry lot. Quite a few of 'em from Wolfenburg, I heard, others was already fightin' Kurgan marauders or some such in Nordland. Still, they need good hand fer them cannons they got and ain't nobody turnin' down a dwarf what knows their shot."
"I suppose not," Anaestari said, for lack of better words. She had been taken back a bit by the openness of the dwarf as much as the absurdity of it all. Anaestari had been instructed to join with the Empire soldiers here to help coordinate the force with that of the elves, but it seemed to her at the moment to be a fruitless endeavor. She felt more likely to be holding a pike at the end of the day than assisting a captain with his vanguard's scouts.
"Oy, yeah? Well, NEXT! Not you, yer too old. Next?"
"Ana..."
"Don't take women. Next."
Anaestari and Belmarra exchanged incredulous looks before looking back at the recruiter who, to his credit, only flinched momentarily under the combined weight of their silent outrage.
Belmarra was having none of it. "Now listen ya cotton-headed twitter wit, I din't walk all this way just to get turned on me butt by the likes o' you. I want to speak to yer captain." She crossed her arms as if to say that any argument to her statement was already out of the question.
"Cap'n says no women, I can't just..."
"Surely your captain would at least treat with us as to why we are here?" Anaestari was annoyed, a feeling she didn't often allow herself to take.
The young man stammered a bit, before repeating that they didn't take women. He looked at the man next to him, who had stopped filling out conscriptions long enough to goggle at the two women at the table. His expression was one of desperation, as if his moustaches were to catch on fire if he spoke at the wrong moment.
"Uh... women don't fight fer the captain?"
Belmarra threw up her hands and bellowed in exasperation, taking Anaestari's hand and leading her from the table. "A right buggered lot ye'll be, ye sods! We'll make our own blasted army."
Anaestari walked with her hurriedly for a minute before leaning in a bit and saying, "We will? How?"
The dwarf stopped and looked at the elf's confused face, her anger suddenly twisting into a crooked grin. "Ow should I know? We'll find somewhere to go, you can trust that. First we're gettin' yer skinny arse some food and me a beer and we'll work it out."
They'd had no luck with Franz's army, but Belmarra's enthusiasm was infectious. They had little doubt they'd find a home soon enough.
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ooc:
Hello there
It took me a slight bit of time to come up with anything when I decided to come here to ask to join, being the alt-happy person I've been so far with WAR. I've spread my time fairly evenly across different characters, but I'm hoping to start focusing on one to be a main now that I'm familiar with the pros and cons of each. Belmarra is my dwarven engineer, a crack shot and extraordinary with a wrench. Anaestari is my Shadow Warrior, a hit and run skirmisher who fights furiously wherever her boots carry her. You may also have run into me with my Sigmarite, Warrior Priest Faldarian, as she's the character I've spent the most time with so far on Avelorn. Lastly, I've been raising Alluviel the archmage as a healer to stand before the chaos hordes; I know I've seen a few of you about as I've fought, and would be honored to take up sword with you if possible.
As for me, I'm a 32 year old married father of two. I play with my wife on the weekends (another character entirely for that, sigh), but otherwise most of my play time is during the weekdays and at night after work. I work opposite shifts from what the rest of my family lives, so I tend to get a lot of time to play these days.
I don't plan to progress all of these characters, which is why I'm here. I want to find something that contributes the most possible to the people I'm with, but once I've settled on that I want to stick with it and grow with the group. What I'm looking for is a comfortable group; not so serious as to be incapable of withstanding failure, but serious enough that everyone is unified in their opposition to it.
Primarily, I just want to have to have fun and have some people to enjoy my time here with. I was inspired by Stash's post on Warhammer Alliance, and you're a guild I've seen even before Warhammer who seems to stick together. Besides, I like the guild name.
In any event, join or not, I look forward to fighting alongside you against the hordes of Chaos.
)