The path led neatly into the mountains, the tall trees giving way to rocks and scrub land. Cord Oelberg led the way, he wanted to get to half way up the closest peak before nightfall. Then by morning he'd be able to lift off and get some bearing on where he needed to lead the retinue. They were no longer as silent in their progress as they had been before; the stripped corpses from the undivided followers had led to a mismatch of plate and leather armour causing rustling and clanking randomly with the retinues un-timed steps. Cord felt his skin begin to itch again; he knew what It meant, the power of the change was on him again how it would change him he did not know for sure but we was certain this was not the end of his mortal existence.

They entered a steep sided valley just after noon no one had spoke for hours keeping their energy for the search and climb ahead. The path way they had been following was slowly becoming less distinguishable, Cord realised that soon he would have to give the lead to one of his retinue so those able to the read the signs of mountain terrain would give them the best path. They rounded and sharp corner in the ever diminishing path and saw it had been blocked by a series of large boulders. Even to Cords untrained eye it looked constructed rather than a landslide.

"Orc's check the boulders for traps and if they can be moved" Cord gave the order.

The orcs happily ran forward and began to investigate the stone. A series of grunts came from one of the orcs and the goblins joined them scurrying quickly to their sides. The grunts and squeals continued for a moment and then an orc grabbed one of the protesting goblins and shoved them in the hole. They then moved back to where the rest of the retinue, the orc carrying the diminutive goblin stopped in front of Cord. The goblin bowed.

"My lord, there is a trap within the rocks. We have sent a w...." the small goblins shrill voice was cut short by an explosion. The rocks that were pile up erupted into the air or began bowling down the path. The orc in front of Cord spun in time to see a large boulder about to crush him, he lifted his hands to stop the rolling boulder easily twice his height. He braced his legs and the goblin on his shoulders stared wide eyed and amazed. The boulder hit the orcs hands and instead of ploughing him down it stopped rolling. The momentum pushed him back and mud trails were created as his booted feet held locked in place. Cord watched, he could see the new muscle growing and expanding on the orc its colour changing from the light green darker and darker until it was almost black. The straps holding the puny goblin onto its strange saddle snapped and he tipped backwards landing heavy with multiple snaps as the tiny frame could not withstand the impact and bones fractured. The boulder and orc kept moving, the tiny goblin screamed in pain and fear. Then it stopped and the valley went silent as the dust settled.

Cord closed his main eye and looked all around him, the Tzaangors were a blaze even 'second', the other beastmen seemed unharmed and were scanning the valley sides, the orcs and goblins had scattered to either side were now dusting themselves off and re-joining the retinue. The Orc in-front of Cord looked at him from over his shoulder; he was starting to strain at holding it back.

"Get this out of the way!" Cord shouted pointing to the goblin on the floor.

A beastman ran forwards scooping the goblin in a single hand, it screamed in pain as all the broken bones were jarred. Cord nodded to the Orc in front of him as he spread his wings and took to the sky. Climbing vertically he could see his disorganised retinue reform after the blockade's destruction, and then something caught his attention. He opened his main eye a looked, a piece of scrub moved, not far maybe half a foot, but it moved. He reached out with his right arm and let the Tzeentchean fire pour through the air. The vegetation caught on fire and the man's screams quickly followed.

"Archers take down the bird!" A shout echoed through the valley.

Arrows appeared from all angles arcing towards Cord. He began to spray Tzeentch's fire at each arrow, a quick blast one by one but he could not hit them fast enough. He heard a bestial grunt and the Tzaangors and beastmen charged up the mountain slope heading for the archers. A small band of warriors began its charge down the valley path through the scorched gap where the boulder trap had laid. The oversized dark green orc stood at the front and roared at them and charged empty handed, the rest of the Orcs and goblins following in his wake. Cord carried on shooting arrows as quickly as he could and began to rise, using gravity to his advantage to slow the arrows but trying to stay in range and not be hit so that his retinue had time to kill them.

Screams and braying began as the beastmen reached their targets the volume of arrows slowed but Cord realised as he was looking that his luck had ran out, two arrows flew towards him faster than before each from different angles and time slowed as he realised he could not destroy them both. He made a choice and fired, closing his main eye he watch the first gout of flame incinerate an arrow and felt his arm move to try and shoot the second, the arrow was inches away as a blaze of Tzeentch fire incinerated it. Cord glanced down and under his flamer arm another had sprouted, the red tendrils spread even further around his body, almost his entire right side had turned into the magical flesh though the spider work of tendrils. Cord stopped beating his wings and dropped quickly to the floor firing burst of magical fire after burst at the remaining arrows headed his way. He walked up to the main fight as the screams finished from the valley sides and watched as the orcs and goblins tore into the bandits with pleasure. The dark green over muscled orc was pounding the humans, each punch dented armour or sent the unsteady to the floor to be ripped apart by the goblins and their small knives. As Cord approached he still had the height over the crowd and he could see the bandits were not what he assumed. They were followers of Chaos, not simple bandits after gold but marauders after blood for the gods. Cord reached his top flamer arm to the sky and sent a burst of fire straight up while shouting.

"Sheathe your weapons!" To his mild shock everyone stopped. "Retinue behind me" he commanded. As the Orcs, goblins, Tzaangors, beastmen and Sven took places standing behind Cord, cord looked over what remained. Eight men remained some had the mark of chaos undivided emblazoned on their armour, others wore the mark as tattoos or brands on their flesh.

"I am Cord Oelberg, champion of Tzeentch and I demand you swear allegiance to the one true god of Chaos and follow me!" Cord shouted at the marauders in front of him.

"Why should we? We are protected by the power of all four major gods and all the minor beings of chaos, we are the ones that you should swear allegiance to." One stepped forward, ornate armour of chaos bound to his flesh, the brand in the centre of his forehead, scars laced across his face and the tip of his nose a mass badly healed flesh. Cord laughed.

"Look at the ground at your feet, so few of your retinue has survived this encounter. I have lost two of my entire retinue and that was from your cowardly trap. Join me and feel real power" Cord spat at him, Cord could see the man was a fool and needed to be taught a lesson quickly or just killed.

"We will never follow you." The champion, Cord guessed replied.

"'Second' see that no one interrupts. You may not follow me but the rest of your retinue look like they want to..." Cord watched the men over the champions shoulder, they could see the power his retinue commanded and craved it, they saw Cord himself horned and winged almost a daemon, the saw the chaos warrior disappear and reappear at different points in the group behind, the Tzaangors smouldering to one side and the monstrous orc of pure muscle. The saw the power and were frightened.

"Never...Attack!" The champion and one other charge Cord.

"Change!" Cord shouted pointing one of the flamer arms towards them. A shine ball of pure magical energy crossed the distance in a blink of an eye and the champion crashed to the floor with the impact. His body convulsed and arms turned to tentacles, then mutated to legs and jelly, the body swelled and shrank, twisted and turn, his head warped through different species, orc, elf, beastman, zoat and all things in between. His single follower looked on in horror as he watch the chaos armour shape itself with the tangle mess of flesh as the power of changed wracked the body turning from the most grotesque mangle of flesh, in a convulsion the arm spread out and clasped around the ankle of the champions single aid. The warrior screamed in pure terror as the power of change was passed over to him, slowly from his leg moving up through his body, the first attached leg melding and warping to join that of the champion two bodies slowly melding and fusing together. The last thing to be reduced to organic goo was the face of the lone marauder, jaw distended in a permanent scream of anguish and horror, the nose flattened to that of a bat, the eyes multifaceted and the skin pulled taught and sallow across and melting skull. The organic sludge poured its way down hill in thin riverlets, cord and his retinue let it pass undeterred.

"Anyone else wish to test my power?" Cord asked silently in the stillness that followed the ravaging death. One by one the marauders dropped to their knees bowing at the power before them. Cord moved forward touching each with his flamer hands on their chaos mark, saying "stand" quietly to each one in turn, their marks no matter their form changed from the eight pointed star of chaos to the stylised flame of Tzeentch, as each one move to their new retinue they were congratulated with slaps on the back and brotherly embraces. Once Cord had touched the last man and he had joined the retinue he turned to face them all.

"We all worship the same power, we all have felt his might and we have all bound ourselves to each other through battle. We move on, we find the temple and we will be blessed by the Lord of Change! We will take the temple to the four, and we will make it to the temple of one! The one true god of chaos, Tzeentch! Nothing will stand in our way. The pyramid will be ours!" Cord reached a screaming crescendo at the end, his retinue joined in, shouting and braying, and calling Cords name.

The noise echoed through the mountain, crashing against the pyramid, the energy of chaos focused there, sent their screams to the four powers.

None liked what they heard.