Another story from me. Sorry for the rather lacking summary, this one is based off the game 'Impire' on Steam. It's a mix of RTS with dungeon-building mechanics. Sure, it does have a bit of dry humor here and there, and one character does a…rather memorable laugh, and there are its fair share of easy-to-get-around glitches, but overall, it's quite fun.
There will be a few game canon events, but I'll try to refrain from using too many of them lest I spoil the game for those who have played it.
Oh, and this story will be in the 'Misc. Games' section until there's one for Impire in the 'Games' fiction section.
Right-o. Lets get on with the story, shall we?
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Ba'al-Abaddon. Arch-daemon of the Bottomless Pit and tormentor of souls that resided there. Second most powerful demon of that realm and was more than eager when he was being summoned. However, that opinion changed rather quickly upon finding a rather nasty surprise waiting for him.
"Oh crap. What have I fallen into this time?"
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Several days after his…rather unlucky summoning and being stuck in the body of an imp…he had regained some of his former power and was currently working on retrieving an urn containing the Dust of Broken Hearts. Currently, he was expanding the dungeon that was close to the location of said urn, having sent out raiding squads for supplies. He had tasked the breeders to creating a new squad as he trudged off to deal with some soldiers entering his lair.
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"Now…just a couple'a mushrooms 'ere, some mats 'dere…" the imp at a pot filled with a vile-green liquid muttered, stirring the contents with a large wooden spoon.
It glanced back at the 'list' for the body parts of an imp, looking back after to continue stirring. It was tasked with making four more imps for Ba'al's army; One berserker, one scout, one priest, and one champion. The bodies it could make, but the blacksmith would have to make the weapons and armor for them once they were complete.
Another few minutes of stirring and it grinned, bringing the spoon up and flung the contents in the dip to the side. When the liquid made contact with several mushrooms growing in one portion of the room, a body similar to it rapidly grew from the goo, though eyes closed.
"Bah, sleepers. Always sleepers at first." the imp grunted, setting the spoon aside before walking over to the sleeping imp. "Always, snoring and such, bloody 'nnoyin'."
When it was standing in front of it, it raised a hand up before giving a harsh slap to the cheek of it. "Wake up, you sodding rut!"
The second imp yelled out from the slap, being pushed off the mushroom it was sleeping on before landing roughly on the cobblestone floor, rubbing its cheek.
"Hey, what was that for? I was sleeping." it – or he – complained, rolling over onto a sitting position, continuing to rub his cheek.
"Bloody right you were sleepin'! You're supposed ta get your stuff first, then sleep!" the first imp scowled. "Now piss off, you're gonn' be blocking traffic. Out of the room, make a left and go until you feel the heat of lava."
The downed imp picked himself up as the first one walked back to the pot, muttering under its breath. Looking around a bit, he soon spotted the exit and made his way to it, giving a shelf of potions a swift kick.
"'ey! I'm gonna beat your arse to a bloody pulp if anything breaks there!" the first imp yelled out, the second quickly running out and went the direction he was told.
There were a couple other imps like him, but carrying sacks that had several bones poking through the cloth, making him wonder what was in them. He shook the thought off as he soon turned down the end of the hall, hearing metal clanging together after. Continuing to make his way down, he soon started to feel the heat of lava, seeing the dungeons forge shortly after, seeing one imp that was nearly twice his size hammering away on some weapons.
"Erm, excuse me?" the smaller imp called out, seeing that the blacksmith wore a form of welding mask to shield his face as he hammered away. "Excuse me?" he called out a bit louder but still didn't get his attention, groaning a bit before lifting his hands to his mouth. "EXCUSE ME! BIG GUY!" was yelled out, able to get the attention of him then, the mask facing him as the pointed ears flopped a bit.
"Ah, 'nodda one, eh?" the large one spoke in a form of butchered English, looking back to the table as he stopped work for a second. He reached under the table, getting a pair of weapons for the smaller imp, turning to face and walking towards him. Said weapons looked like arrowheads, but with a couple straps at the bottom of each of them, as well as a handle for grips. The edges of them were rather finely done, if not a couple niches in them.
"So, a 'zerker, are ye?" the blacksmith said. "'ere's your weapons." he held out the small blades, earning a tilted head from the imp.
"Those little things?" he questioned, folding his arms. "I want something that'll really do some damage, like an ax or a giant sword!"
The blacksmith didn't answer, though it was a bit evident that he disliked when others didn't agree with their weapons. "It's eith'r dese, or jus' your piddly lil' fists."
A groan came from the smaller imp, his ears flopping down. "Alright, fine…"
Nodding a bit, the blacksmith walked over and hoisted the imp up despite the protests that started.
"Oi, quit dat kickin' less you wanna swim in da furnace." he barked, the imp stopping in his struggles almost instantly. "Dat's betta."
He walked over to a different table that was away from the lava, setting the smaller imp on it, one of the hand-daggers next to him. "Aight, only gonna show ya once. Afta dat, yer on ya own fer puttin' these on."
"Wait, why only once?"
"Cause I wann' see if you's smart 'nough to put da otha' one on. Now, watch and pay 'tention." he instructed, grabbing one of the smaller imps hands.
He slipped the gauntlet on, moving the hand through the two leather-strapped loops before having him clench his hand around the handlebar. Once that was done, he fastened them through a buckle on each belt, ignoring a 'not so tight' complaint, slipping the excess through another loop. Finishing that, the blacksmith walked off a bit, returning shortly after with halves of a metal gauntlet, clamping it around the leather straps and half of the lower arm. On top of one half was a small groove that was rather similar in shape to the blade.
"Now, let go of da handle." he instructed, in which the imp nodded and done so. "Here, 'andy lil design of me own. Anytime 'zerkers wish ta grab sumthin', they can fold back da blade, like so." he demonstrated such, folding it back and letting the blade rest a bit smoothly in its spot. "And anytime ya want 'em out…" he flicked the handlebar, the blade snapping back out. "Jus' give da handle a smack and give da foes a good ol' whack." he finished with a rhyme and short laugh, setting down a second metal gauntlet. "Now, you put on da other…" the blacksmith trailed off, looking and seeing a rather scrawny imp standing at the entrance. "And I'll tend to da scout."
Said imp – or scout – swallowed a bit nervously at the sight of the blacksmith, intimidated at his stature. After a bit of introductions, he was shown and given the weapons he was assigned to; a rather simple bow with a quiver full of arrows, as well as a rather tiny dagger. Once he was left alone with the berserker, he looked up and saw said imp struggling to get the second gauntlet blade on correctly, obviously becoming frustrated.
"Um…need some help?" the scout asked, the berserker looking down with a scowl. The scout jolted back a bit before the berserker sighed in resignation.
"Yeah, sure whatever…" he said in a bored tone, holding out his left hand with the unfinished gauntlet.
The scout reached up to it, starting to fasten it, though not as tight than the blacksmith's but enough to keep it on. The berserker couldn't help but notice such, watching him work. "Huh. Different weapon, but you know how to be able to strap this bothersome thing on."
"Yeah. I guess that I just know how to work things just by looking at them." he answered, clamping the metal part of the gauntlet on after. "There."
"Thanks…I guess." Lifting up a bit, the berserker flipped the blades back and forth, getting used to them while looking at the entrance.
The blacksmith was already talking with not one, but two other imps. Though one of them was holding a staff with a rather semi-white colored robe, as well as a form of sock-cap.
"Aye, priest already armed an' ready?" the blacksmith asked.
"Yes, I am." the priest replied, though the tone was female, surprising the larger imp.
"'ell I'll be, quite rare fer a female imp ta be made." he said with a tone of surprise.
"Yes yes, all fine and dandy. Look, can we just get on with this?" she replied, tapping a foot.
"Ah, aight, sorry bout dat." the unarmed imp looked up at him, doing a salute, earning a chuckle from him. "Well, eager one, ain'tcha? Come on, den."
The imp nodded, following the blacksmith to get his gear. A minute later, he was wearing a helmet that was covering his left eye, a gauntlet on his right hand, as well as an obviously-too-big blade, yet he was able to…drag it around without problems.
"Heeeey," the berserker complained as he hopped down from the table he was on "why does he get a giant sword and I don't?"
"Cause he a champion classed imp, and you's a 'zerker." was the answer he got. "Now den, you four folla me. Time ta get some trainings in ya."
A wave of an arm and the blacksmith walked off through an archway opposite of the entrance, the four following him. The berserker, the scout, the priest, and the champion all followed suit, eager or wanting to get training out of the way to see what all they could do to help with their master.
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Currently, I'm looking for names of the four main characters; the berserker, scout, priest and champion. The name for the blacksmith I'll come up with later.
Allow me to say that it was rather fun writing out the speech for the breeder and blacksmith. The former was given a British accent with a dickish personality, the blacksmiths speech based off the butchered English from the Warhammer series' orcs/Orkz.
Now, please note that I'm writing this story mainly to try and get into the swing of writing again. It's been more than two years since I last updated any of my major stories here, so this one will be my focus for the time being. I will try and get around to updating the others, but all in due time, so I thank you if you have the patience of a saint like me.