Mordheim: The Burghermeister's Daughter

by BioDread

Prologue:

The darkened bedchamber was stuffy, almost stifling to Anna von Verbeeck, who lay snug beneath several thick blankets. The fourteen year old daughter of Mordheim's burghermeister slipped out of her large, four poster bed and shuffled across soft carpets to the closed, tall, bedroom windows. The golden-haired girl-child unlatched the windows and pushed the polished glass panes open, hoping to catch a cool breeze. The air outside was as stifling as the bedchamber, a dry heat that stole away breath and left one gasping and dizzy. Blushing scandalously, Anna untied the front of her thin sleeping shift, baring the tops of her small, growing breasts. She gazed up at the night sky, it glowed with a strange, red luminescence, as if the sun were shining even though it was almost midnight. Black, oily clouds churned above the city, bolts of blue lightning crackled and snapped in the depths of the overcast sky. A rumble emanated from the heavens, soft at first, but growing stronger and stronger, becoming so loud the very walls of the manor vibrated and cracked.

Anna stuffed a tiny fist into her mouth to stifle a scream when the meteor appeared, a huge, jagged piece of stone sheathed in evil, green flame. The young girl stumbled away from the open window, her slim body bathed in the falling rock's green light. The meteor landed in the middle of Mordheim, when it struck the earth silence fell across the city.

The shock wave shattered the tall windows while a blast of super-heated air exploded into the room, knocking Anna off her bare feet. Anna screamed at the top of her lungs, crawling towards her bed and finding what shelter she could underneath. Shelves collapsed, walls cracked, and the very ceiling groaned beneath the assault of the shock wave. The air howled like a creature in agony, Anna covered her ears vainly, she squeezed her eyes shut while a cacophony enveloped her, the sounds of shattering stone and the screams of Mordheim's dying. Anna fainted, her mind fleeing the horror roaring around her. The last sound the young girl heard was the cry of a creature, a beast from the womb of Chaos howling in triumph.

*****

Bernardo covered the pretty whore's painted mouth with his, tonguing her as he fondled a soft, pliant breast. He groaned into the young woman's mouth when his cock shivered with pleasure, swollen from the attentions of a second whore who was sucking intently with her sensuous lips. Removing his right hand from the red-maned whore's tit, he placed his palm over the raven- haired whore's tresses, pushing her head down so she would take more of his prick into her throat. Red Hair lightly scratched Bernardo's firm chest, grasping one nipple and tugging playfully. The Estalian licked Red Hair's slender throat, then fastened his lips upon her stiff left nipple, suckling on her firm, rounded breast. Bernardo's fingers were buried in Raven Hair's thick mane, the naked woman's hair warm and silky to the touch. Bernardo groaned again, his pelvis shuddering while the whore sucked and licked his aching cock, her agile tongue teasing the bloated head until the Estalian thought he would explode.

"Bernardo! Bernardo de Salamanca!" cried a voice from the inn's hallway.

The whores murmured in protest when Bernardo disengaged himself from them and slipped into an open white tunic and leather breeches. The Estalian buckled on his weapons belt, pistol and rapier comforting against his hips. Bernardo waited for the gleaming, naked whores to cover themselves with the wide bed's sheets before he unlatched and opened the bedroom door.

A disheveled young man dressed in a fine, embroidered tunic and hose bowed quickly to the Estalian.

"The noble Burghermeister of Mordheim requests your presence immediately. He is in great need of your services," gasped the boy.

"Very well, give me a moment," replied Bernardo before he shut the door. Walking to a wash basin, Bernardo splashed water upon his face. After drying, the Estalian combed his short, black hair, then set a cap snugly in place. Buttoning up his wide-sleeved tunic, Bernardo put on a padded leather vest, laced it tight, and settled a leather harness over the vest. The harness held a brace of pistols, ammo and powder, knives, and leather pouches around the waist. Digging into one of the pouches, Bernardo gave each of the whores a gold crown.

"We could wait for you," smiled Red Hair, encircling one pink nipple with a red-painted fingernail.

"Another time, ladies," bowed Bernardo gallantly before he left the bedchamber.

*****

The Burghermeister's manor was like the other buildings of Mordheim, dark and crumbling, its face a shadow of its former glory. The servant boy led Bernardo through the large, guarded front doors and down a long, arched hallway that was richly carpeted, its walls lined with huge tapestries, silver candle holders set at intervals providing the hall with warm, golden illumination. A second set of doors was opened for the Estalian, granting him entry to the Burghermeister's audience chamber.

The Burghermeister Leopold was a thin man, hunched within his high-backed throne, seemingly weighed down by the heavy, fur-collared cloak he wore. He reached out with a shaking, wrinkled hand and snatched a goblet of wine from a pretty servant girl who smiled warmly at the Estalian.

"You took long enough, boy!" snapped Leopold, his blue eyes smoldering.

"Forgive me, Master!" bowed the servant boy deeply.

"Leave us, all of you!" commanded the Burghermeister, wine staining his pallid lips.

Servants and guards quickly departed. Bernardo glanced briefly over his shoulder when the doors grumbled shut.

"They've taken my daughter! The Chaos-spawned whoresons!" said Leopold before he drank deeply from his golden goblet.

"Who took your daughter, sir?"

"The servants of Chaos, they call themselves the Brotherhood of the Dark Moon. They are led by a magister named Coronarius von Redig."

"I know of them," nodded Bernardo. "Parties from the Brotherhood have been seen scouring the city for Warpstone."

"Them and every other band of mercenaries in the Old World," grumbled Leopold, licking the few remaining drops of wine from his drained goblet.

"Where are they holding her?"

"I am not certain. Probably in the center of Mordheim, where all the other Possessed live."

"It will be difficult to reach your daughter in that Chaos-infested portion of the city."

"I offer you one thousand gold crowns if you rescue my Anna," declared the hunched Burghermeister.

"A handsome sum," nodded the Estalian. "I accept the task."

*****

In the four years after the fall of the stone, Anna had avoided the heart of Mordheim like every other Chaos-fearing person in the once noble city. Now she stumbled through the rubble- choked streets surrounding the blast crater, the air so noxious the young woman felt like gagging. Anna's once fine dress was torn and stained with ash and mud, she was pushed forward by a powerful man dressed in filthy black leathers, his head covered by a purple hood. Anna's captor reeked, but so did everything in this part of Mordheim. Garbage, excrement, corpses, the odors mixed into one overwhelming miasma. Things moved within the gutted interiors of buildings, things that had once been people until the energy of the Warpstone had touched them, mutating their flesh and twisting their minds. A creature with four slender arms and bright pink skin scrambled towards Anna, circular mouth filled with a ring of razor-sharp teeth. Anna cried out, retreating from the creature, losing her footing and falling into a puddle of filthy, black water.

The girl's captor unbelted a massive battle-axe and swung it at the grasping mutant. The notched, rusting blade bit deep into one pink appendage, severing the flailing limb. The creature screamed like an infant, green ichor squirting from its arm stump. The initiate giggled as he raised the axe again and chopped, hitting the mutant's left shoulder with a meaty thump.

Anna sobbed, turning her mud-splattered face away while the initiate hacked the mutant to pieces. The initiate took his time, reveling in the dying mutant's weak cries of pain.

Once the mutant was dispatched, the initiate pulled Anna from the pool of filthy water and pushed her along again, licking the blood from the blade of his axe as he followed the slim girl. Anna felt her gorge rise as she listened to her captor's moans of pleasure. The Crater was very close, Anna could see the cloak of fog that perpetually covered the blast site. The fog glowed sickly green, Anna could almost feel the energies of Warpstone reach out towards her, hungry to caress her flesh and pervert it with the mark of Chaos.

The Brotherhood initiate poked Anna's back with his blood-stained weapon, guiding her into one of the piles of rubble that had once been a building. Anna crouched low to walk down a narrow tunnel dug through the debris, the tunnel eventually opening into a domed, rubble-filled room. A group of initiates filled the chamber, dressed in purple hoods and dark blue tunics. A demonic faced black orb was stitched crudely over each initiate's heart. Drawing a sword, one of the masked initiates motioned for Anna to follow him. The Brotherhood initiates surrounded the girl, herding her towards a hole in the ground. A crudely-made stairwell circled down, the sword-wielding initiate disappeared into its dark depths, and Anna was forced to follow.

*****

Bernardo moved silently through the dark streets of Mordheim, rapier held lightly in his right hand. The Estalian would have preferred to wait until dawn, night was when the creatures of Chaos came out to hunt and have sport. Senses alert, Bernardo ducked into a blackened, abandoned shop, back pressed against the crumbling stone while a pack of Possessed grunted and clawed by, their human bodies deformed by the demons living inside them. Removing his left hand from the handle of one of his pistols, Bernardo hefted his slender rapier and returned to the side of the street, walking lightly on booted soles until he reached a four-way intersection.

A silver-tipped crossbow bolt smashed into the cracked wall to Bernardo's right. The Estalian drew a pistol from his harness, eyes narrowed as he scanned the shadows for his attacker.

"Hold your fire, Sisters!" snapped a strong, female voice.

Bernardo smiled, he recognized that husky voice. He smiled even wider when a lithe, black- garbed form appeared on the street, gloved hand wrapped around a shining, silver-spiked mace.

"Sister Maria," bowed Bernardo gracefully.

The Sister of Sigmar sniffed loudly, but her beautiful, brown eyes glowed with pleasure.

"It's dangerous to be out at this hour, only the spawn of Chaos and those who hunt them prowl these dark streets."

"Have you seen any Brotherhood of the Dark Moon initiates about this night?" inquired the Estalian.

"Yes," frowned Sister Maria, a warm flush of shame blossoming across her lovely face. "A group of initiates had a young woman in their clutches. We gave pursuit, but they split up and we lost the girl near the Crater. We are forbidden to enter any place where the taint of Warpstone is strong."

"Where precisely near the Crater did you lose them?"

"Follow this street to its end, then turn left, then right. The last street leads into the Taint," instructed the Sister.

"Thank you, Lady Maria," smiled Bernardo, bowing again with a flourish.

"Sister, you clod," chuckled the warrior nun.

Bernardo went down the street Sister Maria had indicated. The Sister of Sigmar watched him go, an expression of worry upon her hooded face.

*****

Anna was forced to her knees in the presence of Magister Lord Coronarius von Redig. The Magister reclined within a rotting throne, the chair adorned with blood-stained human skins. Redig wore deep violet robes, his head covered in a golden hood that only exposed his cold, iron-gray eyes.

"The Burghermeister's bitch-child?" murmured the Magister.

"Yes, Lord," groveled the axe-wielding initiate.

"You have done well. You may bathe in the Warpstone chamber for one hour."

"Thank you, Great Lord!" bowed the burly man before he quickly left the throne room.

Anna shivered beneath the Magister's consuming gaze.

"Strip her."

Two massively built initiates walked forward and grasped Anna. The young woman screamed as they ripped off her dress, leaving her naked and vulnerable. She stood on trembling legs, attempting to cover her nakedness with one arm across her breasts and a hand over her sex.

Redig chuckled darkly, resting his chin upon an upraised fist.

"Chain her to the floor."

The two initiates seized Anna's thin arms and forced her back onto her bruised knees. They turned the girl around so her back faced the Magister's throne. Anna was stretched out on the cold, stone floor, her arms pulled forward, her wrists bound in iron-wrought manacles. Matching manacles were snapped shut around the naked girl's ankles, then the initiates stepped away.

"Do you know why you were brought here?" asked Redig, rising from his blood-soaked throne.

"N..no," stammered Anna, her milky white skin covered in goose-flesh, her lips trembling uncontrollably.

"When the Moon waxes full, the Brotherhood offers a sacrifice to the Creature of the Pit, our dark god that lives in the depths of the Crater."

Anna tugged on the chains holding her down, tears slipped down her pallid cheeks.

The Magister knelt next to Anna, he ran one gloved hand down the curve of her spine to her tight, shapely buttocks.

"You will beg to me," purred the Magister, slipping his hand between Anna's thighs, stroking her soft pussy.

Anna covered her face with her long, golden hair. She sobbed, the iron of the manacles biting into her wrists, her legs quaking while the leader of the Brotherhood fondled her bare cunt. *****

Blood arced through the air, propelled by Bernardo's flashing rapier. As the dying initiate clutched his gushing throat, Bernardo ran a second man through with his lightning swift blade, the knife in his left hand cutting a bloody track up a third guard's torso. The remaining initiate fled, descending into the stairwell that went into the bowels of the Brotherhood's lair. Bernardo ran to the hole and flung his knife at the retreating guard. The dagger punched into the small of the initiate's back, the hooded man weakly grabbed at the weapon as he fell. Bernardo went down the stairs and retrieved the guard's corpse. Bringing him back to the guardroom, the Estalian snatched off the man's hood and began removing the long, blue tunic. *****

Anna sobbed brokenly when the whip snapped across her striped back. She raised her perspiring face, disgust in her eyes as she watched the initiates and Possessed of the Brotherhood masturbate while they observed her torture by the Magister.

"We offer this girl's pain to you, Master of the Pit," chanted Redig, raising the leather whip and bringing it down again over Anna's buttocks, adding another angry welt to the dozens of others decorating her small ass.

Anna bit her lower lip until it bled, her eyes swollen by tears of agony and terror. The whip cracked over her again and again, her whole body shuddered, a single mass of white hot pain.

The naked girl was so consumed by her suffering flesh she didn't hear the crack of a pistol, she only realized something had happened when the lashing stopped. Silence filled the throne room for a heartbeat, then roars of fury assaulted Anna's ears.

Anna looked up to see a man hurl a leather bladder at a crowd of advancing Possessed. He aimed with a pistol and fired, hitting the bladder and engulfing the Possessed in ravenous flame. The smell of cooking flesh made Anna choke, until she felt a heavy weight fall upon her bare, bruised back.

"You will still die for my Lord," gurgled the Magister, blood dripping from his mouth, a pistol wound covering his purple robes in blood.

"Help!" shouted Anna, bucking to get the dying Magister off of her.

Bernardo rushed to the girl, leveling a pistol and blasting at the Magister Lord. The bullet exploded through Redig's skull, he shivered once and fell limp across the chained young woman.

An axe-wielding initiate swung at Bernardo. The Estalian ducked, stabbing forward with his blood-drenched rapier, impaling the large man's belly. The initiate raised his axe with both hands, ready to cleave Bernardo in two. Bernardo slashed open the initiate's stomach, intestines and viscera spilled out to splash onto the floor. Bernardo snatched the dead man's axe and hacked apart Anna's chains. He enfolded the naked girl's waist with his left arm and quickly led her out of the burning throne room.

The surviving Brotherhood initiates and Possessed roared after Bernardo and Anna. Bernardo stopped on the stairs to turn and throw another oil-filled bladder at the foot of the stairwell. Pulling a pistol from his harness, the Estalian blasted the skin of oil, blocking the stairs with a wall of crackling fire.

Anna fainted against Bernardo. He gently picked up the unconscious girl and carried her out of the Brotherhood's foul lair. *****

Epilogue:

Tired of being in bed, Anna grimaced as she climbed to her feet, walking slowly to her bedroom window. She looked out over Mordheim, at the dark, hunched buildings, at the pall of green fog that boiled in the heart of the city. Sweat broke out upon the young woman's forehead, she jerked the rich, velvet drapes shut, the need for wine overwhelmed her. *****

The two whores lounged in the common room of the inn, sipping honey wine and watching the fire crackle and snap. It was a slow night. The Possessed had come out in force and slaughtered dozens of people before the city militia and the Sisters of Sigmar drove them back to the Crater. The front door of the inn opened, admitting the handsome Estalian loaded down with two stuffed leather bags.

"Two bottles of your finest!" called out Bernardo as the two lovely whores swayed towards him with hot, lust-filled gazes. He enfolded both young women in his arms, their bodies warm and yielding to his deft touch.

The End.