Life in the Warband (Eventual futa/fem, no smut as of yet.)
Story by lizzylezzy
Well hello everybody! I've been a long time lurker and rarely poster among the forums here, and have always loved a good roleplay or story. I was recently browsing through old roleplays when I stumbled on one that I could easily say was my most in-depth roleplay to date. I've always wanted to try my hand at posting a story here, and figured that this would make a great starting point for something to expand on further. The roleplay and story are based loosely on the setting and theme of a game called Mount & Blade (doubt you've heard of it, but kudos if you have, and double kudos if you've bought it. It's an indie game that can be found on Steam). It's a low-fantasy (as in no wizards or dragons or elves) setting involving mercenary companies who roam the land. Hopefully I included enough to flesh out the setting well enough. There's no smut or anything quite yet, though if people enjoy it and offer feedback or advice, I'll likely be encouraged to write more! Though don't be to harsh on me, as much as I love writing, I'm still a novice. Without further adue, here is "Life in the Warband"!
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A loud, sharp grunt flew from Thane Gundur as the impact of the incoming shield broke his nose, blasting the breath from his lungs, and sending him tumbling backwards to smash into the heavy wooden desk behind him. The large bearded man slumped to the floor, eyes closed, though fortunately with his heart still beating as the lord of Thelrog Castle was only knocked out cold. Pulling the helmet from her head and shaking the sweat from her short, choppy black hair, the dark tan woman who had just smashed her shield into the Thane's face let out a heavy, tired sigh from her plump lips as she listened to the shouts and hollers of victory from her men throughout the halls of the keep and out in the castle courtyard. Angie's face dripped with the sweat of battle as she knelt down before the slumped man, smacking Gundur's cheeks lightly a few times with studded leather gloves until a light little moan gurgled from the man, "Good, the bastard's still alive. You know the routine," Angie spoke with a commander's tone as she turned her green, almond shaped eyes towards three soldiers pulling the blades of their weapons from the corpses of several huskarls who had been the Thane's guards, "You two tie him up and take him to Commander Leziat with the other prisoners. And you, pass on the order to dispatch a few riders to Sargoth. Hopefully that thick skulled King Ragnar can offer us a better ransom for this fool then we got for that Vaegir duke we bagged last month. That is if he's not too busy stuffing his face with meat," Angie cracked a smile to her men as she wiped the blood from her blade on a banner bearing Gundur's herald that had crashed to the floor during the fight, "Or his meat in to some stable boy's face." The soldiers laughed jovially as Angie stood and sheathed her blade, the woman couldn't keep from flashing a wide smile and letting a chuckle float from her lips, there had been a few moments during the siege and storming of Thelrog Castle that even Angie questioned the outcome of the battle, but this victory would fill the coffers of her warband to the brim with enough denars to buy several entire villages with plenty to spare.
Angie gave a hardy, friendly slap to the shoulder of one of her laughing troops as she walked past them through the door to what was now her private quarters, the men hurrying to set about their tasks with high spirits. Though Angie wasn't one to let the thrill of victory distract her from what needed to be done. As she walked swiftly through the halls, she set about issuing orders to the troops she passed to check the bodies of the fallen Nord soldiers, drag the dead out to the courtyard to be stripped of loot, and the take living to the prisoner tent to be processed and recorded. Many warband generals simply shipped their prisoners off to the galleys without much second thought, but about a year or so back Katrin, the frugal woman who oversaw the warband's finances, had suggested recording the names, ranks, any titles, and any land owned by the prisoners when they could coax the information out of them (which usually a good threat served to accomplish just fine). They had made several thousands of denars from ransoming those who were worth it instead of the paltry fifty denars the Slaver's Guild offered for most slaves. Those unfamiliar with the politics of Calradia and the nature of the warbands that wandered the land might scoff at the practices that might be considered unethical but were common practice for those like Angie and her party. In fact, the way Angie led her warband was, if anything, well above average when it came to maters of honor. While Angie was no noble knight by a long shot, over the years she had come to be rather well known for her even handedness, her party never raided the small villages of peasa
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