Mordheim

A Tale of Two Brothers
By Gray Sage aka Lex" <[email protected]>

Xavier Jandersz had looked at the men assembled in what once was the courtyard of a fair sized inn. "OK, so I hope those instructions are all clear, troupe Anton, you leave first", he had said. At that, the first part of his warband, one of his associates with a back up of two recently arrived yet unbloodied merchant sons, had left the inn. Rapidly followed by the other designated teams. Ed had been lucky to have the captain team him up with his brother Hugo. Brain and Brawl, the captain would jokingly call them. Ed, the slightly build marksman, that was a wiz with his crossbow, and Hugo. Build like an ox Hugo was, easily capable of wielding the huge two-handed hammer that was his favourite weapon. As easy as others fought with smaller weapons. Their luck had definitely looked good. Upon entering the building where he was supposed to find a firing spot, Hugo had uncovered a large shard of Wyrdstone. He had been picking up some ceiling beams to barricade the entrance with and made his discovery. A bellow of "Murphy's Balls", had made Ed look down from his ascend to the remains of a third floor. Hugo had looked up and said "look here little brother", pointing at the exposed, darkness radiating rock, the size of a large watermelon. "Look here, enough wealth to buy us back Grammy's farm and leave this dismal place". Then, Hugo stooping to pick up the piece, the accident had happened, if an accident it was. A large part of a ceiling beam had been dislodged and came down, the splintered point taking Hugo square in the back, pinning him to the floorboards. Ed had scampered down, and somehow managed to remove the wood, but had known that it was in vain.

So now he sat there... with Hugo's head in his lap, waiting till the end, not even caring if someone snug up on them.He had folded Hugo's large hands around the shard, so that it rested on his breast and Hugo
could look at it. Cupping his hands around his brothers, he fervently whispered "damm you Hugo, leaving me here all alone", whilst at the same time actually wishing he could trade places with his brother.
That is when it happened. He could never actually recollect the moment.The only consistent part of his tale, the times that I have heard it, are the eerie purplish light and the words he claims his brother spoke.
What those where, you ask? Hugo had said; "You'll never walk along, little brother".

With that the portly, grey-robed, storyteller sits back. He loves to tease his audience. And as expected, he gets the calls of "what happened next?", "where is he now", and "come on Sage, how ends this story!?" from the crowd gathered at the Twisted Goat.

"Well", he says, "Ed is still amongst us, he never could say goodbye to Mordheim. And as the Wyrdstone shard mysteriously vanished, he never had the means to leave anyway. Xavier found him alone in the building, clutching his brothers hammer in his arms. Ed left the warband after the incident. He still is around though. And strangely enough so Hugo seems to be too, if the rumours I hear are true. But whereas before they would always hire as a team, nowadays they are never spotted together anymore".