The Conquering Kings(fantasy story)

[Iron_Lion]

(Sorry Guys lost my campaign so had to start a new story)

Prologue:

Europe is in a state of total war, Christian brethren fighting one another, Islamic hordes sweeping across the continent, bringing death and destruction. The Papacy's power over the Kings of Europe dwindling as the years go by. Excommunication and Genocide are but a daily occurance for the inhabitants of Europe, total anarchy rains down upon these doomed men. But one thing is for certain, out of the chaos a new power has been established, the glorious empire of England has swept through many lands of Europe and will destroy any who wish to stand against them. Their line of conquering Kings have built up this powerful empire, having already destroyed the Scottish and French Monarchy. But unknown to the rest of the world, this glorious Empire is crumbling inside with corruption and a secret hatred, Generals and members of the royal family are plotting and scheming against one another to take control. The young King Anthony the Brave must use his wits and reputation to keep control of his Empire and his subjects

[tommo_312]

?????????????????????????

[jaklei]

Erm... the story?

[Iron_Lion]

In the magificient throne room of the newly conquered royal palace in Prague, King Anthony the Brave sits alone. Deep in thought about his next attack on the dwindling Polish Kingdom. Yet other thoughts creep into his mind, his cousin Prince John the Wrathful has been appointed heir to the throne by the the royal council of nobles. There is a bitter resentment between both these men as King Anthony has disallowed any mass execution or slaying of captured enemy soldiers something Prince John takes great pleasure in doing.

Although Prince John is held in high honour by the Council and is feared by a great many people, King Anthony is cunning and ruthless. His secret army of spies and assassins helped King Anthony take power. His Father was King Rufus, the second King of England, when he died Anthony was not old enough to take the throne, so the kingship was passed onto his fathers brother in law. Anthony resented this greatly and by the time he was 17 he had hired several men to be his assassins and spies, he built up a network of spies to keep an eye on the royal council, and the other family members. By the time Anthony was 20, he had ordered the killing of King Simon and King Simon's son. After that he thought he would surely be given his rightful throne, but it was not so and Anthony had to order the killing of 4 more family members to be kidnapped and taken away on ships to be executed. With the kidnapping and murder of the Royal family, everyone thought it must have been an outside job, perhaps one of the foreign kings had ordered the attack, unknown to them it was within their very household.

There was an eerie silence as King Anthony sat in the cold throne room, but he could feel a presence creeping into the room, something was watching him from the shadows. He looked up and smiled; "what have you to report today Bernabus?"
From the shadow stepped out a figure in dark brown hooded robe. The figure walked slowly to the king and bowed, "We have word that Prince John has failed to take Florence from Milan and is badly injured, now is the right time to strike my lord, everyone will think he died of his injuries..."
"Not yet my friend, we still need him... there is no one else capable of holding the Milanese at bay. We must have patience" said Anthony. "Return here in two days, i will have a mission for you." With that the hooded figure crept out the throne room quickly and quietly.

[tommo_312]

wow keep it up!

[Iron_Lion]

Meanwhile in the rest of the Empire;

The Offices of the Papacy have been moved to Nuremburg, there they are Isolated watched from North to South, East to West. Border patrols and spies watch their every movement, no messenger or folk can travel in or out of that province without authorisation from English Commander (Simon the Afflicted). The whole purpose behind this was to show the other Kings the true power of the English Empire. That they alone have the power to control the Pope.

The Venetians are in alliance with England, not because they want to but because they have to. They have been given one province to control, and lets face it one province is better then no province at all. The English Kings have not destroyed the Venetian Kingdom because there have been a couple Venetian princesses married to English Kings and Princes, and their sons and daughters have Venetian Blood, but that does not mean England won't crush the Venetians if they step out of line. Doge Michael "the Honest," the faction leader of the Venetians is desperate to cling onto his power, and so has become a lapdop for the English.

Spain has been pushed back, they now control one single province, in between both the English and Moors borders. The Moors are proving to be a difficult opponent, with only 2 Generals commanding the armies stationed in the Spanish provinces and with little back up or support, there raises questions as to whether the English Empire is too large to control?

Prince John "the wrathful" is stationed in Milan, there he holds his headquaters. The provinces of Milan, Genoa and Bologna were to be used as a base to attack Florence, but the HRE have sent two armies to surround the city of Bologna. Not only does Prince John have to attack Florence, but he also has to deal with the HRE invasion of Bologna.

The province of Naples is cut off from the rest of the Empire as the Milanese control Florence and Rome. To make matters worse, the Sicillians have sent two armies and the Byzantine Empire have sent Mavros Comnenus a great Byzantine General and his army. Things aren't looking good for the defenders of Naples. Without reinforcements, those men are surley doomed.

====================================

In the Royal Palace of Milan, Prince John is discussing a way to beat back the HRE invasion force with his officers.

"We have 200 Knights stationed here, and another 150 in Genoa, we can gather up militia from both provinces, take some men from my main army to deal with the bastards! that should be more then enough men and with Jasper leading them, we would have a good chance of winning. That way i can concentrate on the attack on Florence," said Prince John.

"What about the Venetians? They can send some of their men to help beat back the HRE can't they? questioned one of the officers. Prince John replied "I will send an emissary to speak with Doge Michael, but i doubt he will want to send many men as he needs those soldiers to keep the peace over there!" "Yeah we have to fight the Milanese and the HRE whilst those lazy bastards sit on their fat arses being protected by our soldiers!" one of the captains said angrily.

"You must hold your tongue Captain Morgan, we wouldn't want you to offend the Kings mother and his wife" said Prince John sarcastically. "Besides... i hear the King has spies all over this blasted Empire and we wouldnt want your head to go chop chop would we?!" Everyone chuckled except Prince John. "I know that once the Kings son is old enough to take the throne he will want me out of the picture" said Prince John sorrowfully. Just as he said that , he looked up and saw a hoodedfigure standing in the shadows and then quickly disappear out of sight.

Prince John felt a chill run down his spine, this was now the 3rd time since he left London that he has seen a hooded figure watch him and then disappear with a blink of an eye. No matter how many guards he has with him, this hooded figure always seems to be able to watch his every move. As much as the royal council loved him, they surely could not protect him from the Kings assassins unless he were to disappear from the royal court completely and live a life as a hermit or something like that.

[Iron_Lion]

The tavern was noisey as usual, packed full of drunk men and whores, laughing, cheering and cursing were the common noises. Sat quietly in a dark corner was a hooded figure smoking his pipe and sipping his ale surveying his surroundings. No one seemed to pay any attention to this mysterious man and if any looked at him, they quickly turned away. There was a deep menacing look in his eyes, someone you should never mess with, his name was Samuel, "Samuel the butcher" he was one of the kings elite assassins. His attention quickly focused on another hooded figure sitting on the other side of the room staring at him, mimicking how he was sat, drinking his ale.

Samuel slowly got up, picked up his drink and walked over to the hooded figure; "when one door is shut..." Samuel paused, "another door is open" replied the stranger. "Follow me" Samuel whispered. He walked up the stairs at the back of the packed tavern and entered a small private room, the hooded man finished his drink and followed.

As the man entered the room, Samuel was sat at a small table, drinking his drink and looking at old maps. "So who
is the target?" questioned Samuel, "Sir Paul of Nottingham" replied the hooded man. Samuel was shocked, Sir Paul of Nottingham was of royal blood. He was the kings cousin, son of Henry, the third son of William the Conqueror, the first king of England. "What is the reason?" asked Samuel, "the reason is none of your business, you are an agent of the King and you will follow orders!" snapped the man.

Samuel stared at him, his anger quickly rising and his fists clenched, the hooded man could sense this and quickly pulled out a small but very sharp looking knife. "I think you better calm down, otherwise one of us will end up getting hurt" said the hooded man nervously. Samuel picked up on this, he smiled an evil smile and slowly got up. Staring straight into the mans eyes; "You know im a level 5 agent and i could kill you with a blink of an eye." The mans eyes darted from Samuels eyes to his fists and his stance seeing whether he was going to lunge at him or throw a knife at him. There was a moments silence was both men stared at each other, the only sound came from the heavy breathing they were both making.

"Now tell me, what is the reason for me to kill the Kings cousin? The cousin whom the King cares deeply about, his right hand man..." Samuel said slowly "Hes plotting against the King... conspiring to take over the capital whilst the King is in Prague" said the man quickly. Samuel was a good judge of character and could tell by the mans eyes that he was lying. Within a second he picked up his mug which was on the table and chucked it at the man, hitting him squarley on the nose. Blood was gushing from the mans nose and he was stunned for afew seconds, plenty of time for Samuel to land a right hook against the mans jaw, knocking him out cold.

The man woke up and found himself lying on a bed in a dark room, his hands and legs were bound by rope. He wriggled to try to get loose; "You wont get out of that, i can promise you..." said a voice in the corner. This startled the man but he could vaguely make out the face of man in the corner, it was Samuel. "If you kill me, they'll hunt you down!" shouted the man. Samuel chuckled; "and who are they?" he asked. "They are the Black Wolves, the people you work for!" shouted the man angrily. The Black wolves was the secret organisation of spies and assassins set up by King Anthony to keep an eye on and assassinate any who posed a threat to the King and the Empire. They had agents in every province, spies in other kingdoms. Everyone who was important was watched by the Black Wolves, their headquaters was based in London, very few knew of their existence. Samuel was stunned, he started to have doubts about whether this man was lying. But no, he couldnt be, he was alright right when it came to knowing whether someone was lying or not and that man was lying.

Samuel walked over to the bed and looked down at the helpless man, "Tell me the truth or you wont ever get out of here alive" The helpless man looked petrified, "Please dont kill me, im just following orders" he begged. "What is your name?" asked Samuel calmly "pe...peter" mumbled the man. "What is the true reason, behind this mission Peter?" asked Samuel. "I cant tell you, they'll kill!" said the man. Samuel grabbed a very large and very sharp knife from his belt, he smiled and said; "I'll ****ing kill you, slowly and painfully, i'll make you beg to kill me it will be that painful. Peter looked horrified, he knew of Samuels reputation within the organisation, and knew that Samuel could tell if he lied. "Okay!" gasped Peter, "The Assassin master in London is planning to take control of the Empire, hes going to assassinate the extended royal family and then hes going to go for the royal family itself. He already has a couple of Generals who have sworn an Oath of alliegance to him." Samuel couldn't believe what he was hearing, the Black Wolves who swore a blood oath to god to serve the King was planning to kill him and his entire family! Samuel quickly took his knife and stabbed it into the mans heart, he gave a scream, eyes open wide, staring at the ceiling as his life quickly slipped away from him.

Samuel gathered up his things and departed for London.

[Zhou]

I like your story, keep up the good work