A grinding of shingle announced the arrival of the ships
prow on the beach, this was shortly followed by the thud of a pair of feet.
Theogar had arrived, as was befitting of the leader he was the first to jump
from the long ship he adjusted his scabbard and turned to watch his men coming
ashore. “His men” it still seemed alien to him to think of this group as his,
only last season he had been one of those men following his father. His ascension
to leader had not been easy a lot of the veterans considered him too young and
at 26 in his darkest moments he sometimes agreed with them. On his father’s
death in mid winter Theogar had acted quickly he had gone straight to his Uncle
Oscar and told him of his Dads death bed wish for Theogar to take his place,
Oscar while being his uncle was only 10 years his senior and in many ways they
were more like brothers. Together they had gone to Godric who for the past 5
summers had been the Lords right hand.
Godric had not been
as easy to persuade, his first reaction had been to challenge Theogar. Theogar
could not refuse if he wanted to become the leader of his Dads warband. The
challenge had been fought the next morning before the funeral pyre had even
been built, it had been a long and brutal fight and both man would carry scars
of that day all their lives, the end had come when Godric’s sword had broken,
but Theogar had refused to kill an unarmed man and had made him yield instead,
while this act of compassion had won over Godric who had pledged his live to
Thogars service many of veterans had said it was a bad omen and packed up their
gear and moved off to find new warbands. All this had meant that while Theogar
had a core of grizzled veterans much of his force was young men and even a few
boys many had not spilt blood in anger.
A loud splash and burst of laughter brought Theogar back to
the present, he turn to see what the commotion was and smiled as he saw the top
of Wulfwulf’s helmet sticking up in the water, while the water at that point
would only be 5’ at most it was enough that Wulfwulf had diapered with the
splash heard, he stomped out of the water and gave Theogar a sheepish grin
after which he turned on the laughing crowd and gave a guttural howl
“ Who want’s to be cut down to size then?” he growled
Theogar chuckled to himself and noted that it was only new
fighters who dared to laugh, the veterans and seen Wulfwulf fight and knew of
his short temper, Theogar knew what the men called Wulfwulf behind his back
they called him Thogars Hound. Wulfwulf had been a foundling it had been only
his size that kept him alive as he was given to the king as a court fool, as he
grew he had bulked up but stayed short, even now he was little taller than a
large wolfhound (this was how he had gained his name). All throughout his short
life Wulfwulf had taken the insults and jokes from the Kings man with stony
silence until that fateful day when the king’s young champion had passed comment
about the fact due to his size Wulfwulf’s Mother must have mistaken a wolfhound
for the God Frigg. Wulfwulf had leap up from the floor and attacked the young
champion with his bare hands. Once he had been pulled off, the young man’s nose
had been spread flat across his face, he had demanded that the king let him
challenge Wulfwulf to a death match. The king had been almost blind drunk at
the time and Wulfwulf had become a teenager and was harder to keep under
control so had agreed.
No one had come forward to stand with Wulfwulf until a young
Theogar had thrown off his Dads protesting hands and walked to Wulfwulf’s side being
only a few years older than him Theogar had spent time in his company and knew
that behind all the anger and hurt was a shy and thoughtful man who was
desperate to find his own identity. The challenge had been fought with axe’s
and the champion had toyed with Wulfwulf hitting him with the flat of his axe
time and time again, but each time he was knocked down Wulfwulf would jump back
up with a new fire in his eyes, after several minutes of this brutal assault
Wulfwulf had been covered in blood from small cuts over most of his torso but
still he attacked, the watching crowd started to note that while the champion
was breathing heavier and his strikes were lacking their accuracy and strength
of the start Wulfwulf seemed to be growing in stature and confidence, the
champion had long ago stopped trying to humiliate his small opponent and his
every blow now was aimed to kill, but Wulfwulf blocked every attack and when
the champion stumbled he attacked with a howl, the death blow when it came was
so quick many missed it Wulfwulf with one blow removed the champions head. The
king had released Wulfwulf from his service and told him not to appear in his
hall again. It had been only Theogar who had given him a place to go, Theogar
had taken Wulfwulf back to his father’s hall and provided him with a home, from
that day till this Wulfwulf had been Thogars shadow and bodyguard over time he
had been accepted by all his Dads men mainly due to the fact that in battle
Wulfwulf very soon had no equal.
Soon all man were off the long ships and on the beach Theogar
looked over the men to the left was Godric with the few veterans who had
remained in his service to the right Oscar was kicking the young new fighters
in to some form of order and at his side Wulfwulf was drying off his weapons,
Wulfwulf had not been to only one to be affected by the challenge in the kings
hall Theogar had been ridiculed for standing with Wulfwulf and had since that
day been known as Theogar the Odd.
All this would mean nothing if Theogar could fulfil his Dad’s
deathbed wish and become the greatest Saxon Warlord of the age, to do that he
must become the scourge of the Britain’s. This was why on a fine spring morning
Theogar turn and looked at the rolling green hills in front of him and with a
last readjustment of his sword he rested his heavy spear on his shoulder sent
up a pray to Woden and set off up the beach.
Thus begins the Chronicle of Theogar The Odd
I am going to be playing a campagin against Mike as you can tell I will be playing the part of the Saxons I have just to build all those nice GB plastics and paint up some nice Musketeer Miniatures command figures Loki has given me.
