William continues on until he sees something at the distance.
Gray clouds drifting not far from where he was.
'Smoke' William thought
That means there's a camp nearby.
But of course he doesn't know if they're friendly or not which is why he has to thread carefully.
He carefully ordered his horse to slowly but gently gets closer to the camp all the while try to not get detected.
He eventually arrives at a clearing where the camp is located at, but as he arrives he suddenly discovered that the camp is empty.
It seems that whoever this camp belongs to left in a hurry, judging by the barbecue still being roasted by the camp fire and the empty tents laying around.
William dismounted and went into the camp to investigate.
He walks into the camp to survey what they left behind.
As he's walking around the camp he eventually stumbles upon a book of some sort on the ground.
William looks at it curious of its contents bends dawn to pick it up, but as he was doing so an arrow suddenly flew pass him.
Fushsss
This caused William suddenly became alert as he drops the book and quickly draws his chainsword.
William stood ferm as he scans his surroundings trying to pinpoint where the arrow came from.
Eventually he hears the sounds of bickering coming from a bush not far from him, unfortunately William can't understand what they're talking about but he can kinda hear a hint of low gothic in thief language.
"I told you to shoot 'ONLY' when I told you" from a male voice.
"But he was reaching out for my diary" from a female voice.
"Nobody cares about your sodding diary!" From another man with a deeper tone of voice.
"He's reaching for my diary blah blah blah"
This of course stepped on the girl's feelings as it caused a round of bickering.
William of course can't understand much of it with the occasional word or to he recognise.
After a series round of bickering the presumed 'leader' of the group finally decided to put an end to this show "enough! We can discuss this later right now we've got much important things to deal with!"
"Hmpt" replied the girl visibly dissatisfied but eventually relented.
Soon a man came walking out of the woods.
"Greetings my friend, what brings you to my humble little camp?" He said wearily as he stared into the brutal looking chainsword in William's hands with all the teeth and stuff.
The leader of the group imagines just how painful it will be receive a cut from that, just looking at that weapon send chills dawn his spine.
William of course didn't understand what he's saying, stood there for a moment and stares at him.
Silence rang through out the surroundings as they awaited what the stranger would say.
Moments passed until the leader decided to speak up to beak up this stalemate.
"Ehemm... as I was saying" but at this time William steps in and said something incomprehensible to them.
"Identify yourselves" he said that in high gothic as he had concluded that the language they're using is vaguely similar to gothic.
So he thought that why not try using an older language like high gothic, as he's now beginning to suspect that the planet he found himself in is a lost colony that was cut off since the golden age.
The leader frowns as he hears William speaks an old archaic language that he doesn't understand.
As question marks pops over most of the party's heads, at this time the elf girl's suddenly perked as she being more or less the book worm of the group has heard of the language.
Well... more like hits and pieces scattered throughout old literature. Legend spoke of the first language of man, little more is known except the that when man first appeared that was the tongue they speak.
It is said that all languages spoken by Man today from the the distant lands of Cathay to the empire's Reikspiel, they all originated from one common tongue.
Off course she's no expert on the subject matter and she only knows a thing or two but it'll have to suffice as there's no other option.
Well... they could try and take him on but judging by his his attire while visibly worn but it's still not something the average man could get their hands on.
Besides that judging from the blood stains and scratch marks on his gear, he's no push over.
They have to think carefully before they provoke an enemy they couldn't take on.
And as much as she hates to admit it it's kinda her fault that they ended up in this situation, so she's kinda feel obligated to mend the situation somewhat.
So she steps out off over and walks up to where her is leader is at.
Soon a hooded figure came walking out of the woods, judging by the figure it's a woman.
The leader on the other hand is like 'what the hell are you doing! You're supposed to be at the forest pointing your arrows at him!'
Of course he didn't voice it out loud but the face he is making more then telling enough.
She walks besides the leader and began talking to him in broken single letters high gothic.
"we... adventurer... " and proceeded to introduce her whole team to him, she of course feels slightly embarrassed speaking this strange ancient tongue in a grammatically flawed way as if being forced cough out a dead chicken.
'Why the hell is he speaking a dead language!' She of course didn't say it out loud but complain in her mind, she however inquired why he's speaking such an old tongue.
Hearing this 'girl' or Maruvael speak high gothic William is intriguing and somewhat... joyed? as high gothic was his last hope in communicating with the locals.
Anyway he frowns as he has no idea what those names and places mean.
Judging by their unfamiliarity with low gothic and fragmented high gothic, it reaffirms his earlier theory of this world being a lost colony since the golden age. Now the problem is if the're clothes is anything to go by this is a feudal world.
Meaning that his's stuck on this planet for good.
Or... until the imperium discover this place, but that's very unlikely as thousands of years have passed and this place still haven't been discovered.
What make him think that the imperium will discover this place in the next few years... or in his entire lifetime for that matter.
'Suffice to say the Emperor must have a plan in mind to have sent him to this place with no way of calling for reinforcements.' He thought as he wondered what could one single Krieg cavalrymen do, but anyway for now he needs more intel so he inquired a few more things.
He of course made his words simple and shorter to make is easier on the girl and it also added the benefit to keep them guessing his intentions.
Like when mentioning an unfamiliar word like 'Altdorf'
William would be like "Altdorf?"
The the girl would like "yes Altdorf the capital of the Empire bla bla bla... we were going to bla bla bla Altdorf"
Naturally he used it moderately to not make it obvious.
From her explanation William managed to glean a few basic things. Nothing much and there still a lot of gaps in his knowledge but it'll suffice for now.
After that the girl's then started to ask him questions like who is he? Why is he used an ancient dead language?
He just told her that he's a traveler from a distant land.
He didn't say much more than that, which kinda annoyed the girl and through the girl the leader or Hans as she called him also.
Although she doesn't quite believe William as she feels that he's hiding something but she just went along with his story anyway. She did however voiced her concerns to Hans though.
At this time the dwarf at the back yelled "so ya disturbed my sleep only for this! Not noble, not rich, no nothing!"
Fortunately for the little squat William does understand a single word of it.
The girl the replied to the dwarf " don't go and provoke him you damned dwarf!"
"Why? He can't even understand ya"
William just ignores it asked if they had a map of the surrounding area.
The girl turns back to William and replied they have but they can't give it to him as it's the only one they had.
William for a brief moment thought that maybe he could get it from them forcefully.
As he's thinking about it, the girl seemingly understood what he's thinking quickly asked him where he wanted to go? perhaps they could help him in some way.
William replied to the nearest settlement as he could get better intel there than from these strangers.
"What a coincidence we're also heading there too to resupply and to take a short break from our last mission" she the proposed that he could join them.
Seeing that they seems to be striking a deal or something, so the leader asked Maruvael what have been discussing.
To which she replied that William wants the Map to the nearest town and the leader was like "we can't give it to him"
"Damn right" added the dwarf at the back
"Be quite" Maruvael shot back at the dwarf before continuing to explain to Hans that he doesn't seem to be the guy to take NO for an answer.
"Bring it on! we could take him on" the Dwarf provoked
Hans thought about it for a moment and looking at the teeths on the chainsword, he eventually agrees to take him along to the town.
The dwarf wanted to protest but without support of the team he wasn't confident he could take him on.
Maruvael the told William that the leader agreed to take him to the nearest town.
William naturally agrees as long as he gets to the nearest settlement then it's fine.
After agreeing Maruvael sighs in relief while somewhat distrustful of William but felt relief in knowing that she won't have to fight this strange man.
While she's not completely opposed to fighting but something tell her that it's best to not fight the man before her. She doesn't know why but something about him just feels wrong to her.
Meanwhile the dwarf grumpily goes back while mumbling something dwarvish.
Hans on the other hand quickly went to his barbecue as it seems it's about to get burnt.
William turns back and heads for a tree not far from the camp, where he has a clear vision on the whole camp site. He seats dawn and leans on the tree.
He then orders his mount to lay besides him, which it obediently follows as ordered.
Meanwhile Maruvael just looks at the stranger's equally strange mount wearily. She took particular notice to the hoof-claws on it's feet.
Hans on the other hand took more of a curiosity to the masked on the horse.
—- story end—-
Any ideas for future adventures?