The demented Barney golem and a couple of the other unique experiments I had given the ability to make sounds sang “its a small world after all!” and danced in a circle. The large meaty ones looked particularly unsettling as they shuffled their flesh and excess meat to the beat of the happy children s ride tune.
“By the gods! Rayid, what, what are you doing?” Traser said as he sheathed his sword again. He had pulled it half way out of its scabbard in response to the golems moving in unison. “They’re, what is happening?” He was at a loss for words as he wove his way between the two groups of golems and towards the front of the building.
Zed’s response was opposite Trasers. His eyes went wide, filled with wonder, his jaw dropped and he squealed. He literally squealed like a weeaboo who just got the news that his favorite anime series had been renewed. The man was in heaven, he laughed at the fat folds jiggling, he giggled at the little two foot tall fire golems with a heart of coal dancing next to their water golem cousins, and he clapped as the sand golems beat tiny rocks in their hands together to the beat of the creepy educational children’s song.
When the display was over, Traser’s shock was eclipsed by the joy that exuded from my master. “Oh you clever boy you, that was fantastic! I loved every minute of it. Have you considered having them do other songs? How about On The Road to Avalon? Come, i’ll teach it to you! Its quiet morbid too!” The elderly Master Mage had several interesting suggestions about other dances I could have my little golems do, and some very interesting and creepy children’s songs native to Tor that he wanted to see them do. In the end, even Traser relented.
“I suppose it could be useful to confuse or disorient an opponent. I know it threw me off.” With a hearty laugh Tol’geth patted him on the back. My companions and I all sat down to dinner as the sun set and they told me of their efforts.
“Well, I went with Zed and Traser all day as i’m still not technically allowed to be in the city without some kind of escort.” Ailsa said before she inhaled a sweet roll.
“And i’m not good at telling this type of stuff so I’ll let the Traser do the talking.” Tol’geth said as he began digging into some soup.
“Okay, I suppose that leaves me to tell the tale. There isn’t that much to tell, but here goes. We delivered all of our threats disguised as invites to the various high nobility. Most of them are in some sort of lock down right now anyway as most of their guards, knights, and licensed magic users are now away with the Count. So, the invitations were of course all turned down.” I opened my mouth to ask a stupid question and Traser stopped me. “It’s not that they turned us down, but the method in which they turned us down. Most were polite, even pledging a token amount of money to the effort.”
“Bagged six hundred gold royals that way!” Zed said, interrupting between slurps of his soup. Annoyed, Traser continued as I salivated at the thought of so much money. What was petty cash to these posh noble types, paid to tell us to go away and leave them alone, might very well help to fund gear upgrades for all of us. Or, as I thought about it, fund the movement of the refugees.
“About mid day we were at the estate of Baron Senchel. He’s a farming barren on the far eastern side of the county. His lands are closer to the eastern county seat than Sowers Vale, but he still owes fealty here. He wasn’t actually present. His forces have been assembling at East-Watch instead of here watching for additional invaders or opportunists who might try and take advantage of the fact the duchy is under threat by the undead. It’s all part of the unified forces agreement, but that’s not important right now. The fact is we were going to be meeting with one of his sons. The man is a little older than I am, but he is no warrior. More of an administrator and tax accountant for his father’s estates, and he does a decent job. We were waiting for our appointment when a messenger from the Countess came.”
“Yes, something similar happened when I was at the guild hall. The tall one you sent me to.” Tol’geth said as he motioned to Traser. “The messenger was rude, cutting in line after I had waited nearly an hour to drop off a piece of paper.”
“Barbaras made you wait an hour?” Tol’geth nodded. “Hmm, I’ll have to see about having a chat with him soon. That is just disrespectful.” Traser said as he shook his head in thought. “My family is not high nobility, but we are close to that station because we own our own realm. In some ways we are like Dukes, in other ways we are back woods country knights. In either case, such a thing is disrespectful. I am sorry Tol’geth.”
“It is alright. When he saw me, he squeaked like a mouse, he he he!” The bare of a man chuckled low, and his laugh was filled with mirth at the memory which sent a chorus of other chuckles and giggles through my assembled companions.
“Right well, that message was from the Countess. The runner saw me and delivered the message to me rather than needing to run all the way here.” He pulled out a small scroll and laid it out on the table in front of us. “It’s an invitation to a reopening of the New Year Festival. Its supposed to have run an entire week, but with everything that has happened the festival only saw a single day of events before war was declared. Instead of being a city wide affair like it is most years, the Countess has instead ordered the indoor winter market to open earlier then normal and for the space to be used for the festival.” He pulled out a map of the city and pointed towards the fish mongers market and dock district. Then he moved his finger over towards the river where a massive building, and several dozen gigantic silos were marked on the map.
“This holds the cities meat and fish for the winter, and as the snows deepen, and the stores get sold to the population. Leaving a lot of space open. The normal market is moved in doors until spring when the entire storage district turns into a muddy almost impassible mess. But in the snow it’s not a terrible place to be.”
“So she’s opening this thing early then?” I asked, then took a bite of my pork sandwich.
“Precisely. As a reopening of festival festivities, tomorrow night there is going to be the Battle of the Bards.” Traser said this with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. “Its the highlight of the entire festival season with everything else building up to it. It’s meant to be a last hurrah for the Dead God and his clergy before the Dominus priesthood basically takes over the clerical duties of the city.”
“I’m still confused about how that all works, but perhaps a topic for another time. What do we have in store for tomorrow to strengthen this ‘army of justice?” I asked, and we made our plans for the next day.
Chapter 9: Signal Fires In The Dark
"Fire burns brighter in darkness" - Unknown
The Traser Estate, City of Sowers Vale, 5th Novos, 2989 AoR
Someone was shaking me, making my bed creak and shriek. “Rayid, Rayid! Wizard, wake up!”
“What?” I asked groggily from a dead sleep. It was still dark, though a slight gray had appeared in the sky outside my window.
“Yeah, meat head we need to get going!” Ailsa said from somewhere by the door. She had gone to bed with me, so the fact she was awake meant something was up.
“Well, stop shaking me already. I’m waking up.” I said, and the hands that had been holding my shoulders released me. I groaned as I rubbed my face and rolled myself to my feet. I walked over to the small basin of clean water and splashed my face, bracing myself. I was still exhausted, but at least now I was awake. With a snap of my will, I created a ball of light and stuck it to the wall, bathing the room in near daylight. Traser was the one who had been shaking me. He stood in my room wearing full plate mail, his sword strapped to his hip.
“I take it that something is going on?” I asked. Traser nodded and Ailsa nearly fell out of the sky she rolled her eyes so hard.
“Raiders have attacked the barges along the river.” Traser explained. “They lit their signal fire while still within sight of the walls. They call for aid.”
“Oh,” I said, as my mind tried to catch up. “And, and no one is coming to help. Th
e city watch won’t risk leaving the city’s defenses right now.” Traser nodded again. “Which leaves us. Got it. Are Tol’geth and Zed awake?”
“Everyone is awake and ready to go except. . .” Traser let the words hang there for a minute, less an accusation, and more an urgent plea that I hurry.
“I see. Just a second.” I turned and hurried to get ready. I found the staff had been good enough to clean and repair my robes from the minor damage I had done to them during my experiments. I grabbed my staff, put on Util’cil then my ring of spell storage that was synced with my staff, then donned my Locket of Radiant Water. Lastly, I put on Sparks. When I turned around just a few moments later Ailsa was gone and Traser was waiting for me.
“Come wizard, we must go.” I followed him down and out of his family’s estate. We met Zed and Tol’geth on the street and began making our way, somewhere.
“Where are we going?” I asked, as my mind was still trying to banish the last vestiges of foggy sleep. “I mean, how are we going to get to the river and help these people? Shouldn’t we be headed towards the northern gate and make our way to the river from there?” I asked as we picked up the pace to a jog. I noticed a set of fires had been lit on each tower along the wall. These were much larger and not used for light, or warmth like the lantern shielded braziers were spaced every few dozen feet along the wall. Those must be the signal fires Traser mentioned, I thought, as I followed my friends.
“There is a sally port on this side, just trust me.” Traser said as he picked up the pace to fast jog. I wasn’t able to question him anymore as I struggled to keep up. I might have been in the best physical condition of my life, but that didn’t mean I liked running. Tol’geth was breathing hard, too. If there was one thing large guys like us hated almost as much as stairs or knee highs through thigh deep snow, it was sprinting. On ice. With the wind howling, and the bitter cold eating through your clothes.
Wait, I can do something about that. Smirking, I ignited my ring and staff and the cold seemed to melt away. The ice under my feet just disappeared. I chanced a glance behind me and there were footprints of melted ice to the cobblestones wherever I stepped. Now that is a useful thing to remember. There seem to be a lot of these little useful tricks magical items don’t tell you about, I thought as I turned my attention back to where I was going.
After what felt like an hour of running but looking at my HUD’s clock, I realized it had only been about ten minutes, we came to a tower in the wall. Several guards mingled outside the tower. Traser had us slow and then stopped about a stone’s throw away from the guards, and he approached them. What he said was lost to the howling wind of the growing storm. But after a few brief exchanges, the guards parted and Traser motioned for us to follow him.
We entered the tower and found ourselves in a well-lit barracks building. Several dozen guards were sleeping in one room, while dozens more swarmed the place. Each carrying a gladius looking short sword, a buckler hanging from their backs, and the same overly large spears with the massive spearheads and large hunting cross guards. As we were going, I saw one group of four guards undo a screw along the sides of the long spears and they collapsed down to a much more manageable length for storage indoors. “Fancy,” I said, before turning and following Traser.
We entered a large central chamber on the ground floor, and found a large circular table strewn with maps and sheets of paper being brooded over by several severe and powerful looking men. They all had on partial plate armor, mixed with a healthy dash of chainmail and thick gambeson. Each had a cloak and cloth covering over their armor that had their house emblazoned somewhere on it. As we entered, the largest of the three men turned to face us. When he saw Traser his smile was genuine and large.
“Tegan my boy! How are you?” The bear of a man was equal in size to Tol’geth, but he lacked the same raw muscle that my barbarian friend had. A layer of softness covered the man. Where Tol’geth was a roided out bull, this man was a brown bear. All shaggy, happy, and yet still I could sense he was quite dangerous in his own right. The man walked around the table and embraced my friend, picking him up off the ground and squeezing him.
“Uncle! Uncle, I can’t breath!” Traser wheezed through laughter and the tight hug. The massive man let his nephew down a moment later.
“How is Ma’vone? My brother? I heard about the fighting and—” The man’s face fell. “I am sorry to hear about Dazin’s betrayal. It crushed your aunt. We had offered him a place here with the guard. Where he could have risen to true authority but—” Tegan nodded along and the two men stood in silence and commiserated for just a moment on family business.
“Yes, it was a rough few days of fighting. But the war was won, and we freed Dazin from whatever spell or hold that witch had on him in the end. Ma’vone is doing well. He was crucial to our victory actually. But that is a tale for another time. Perhaps tonight you and Aunt Sirene can visit the estate. Right now, my friends and I have some work we need to do.”
“Right. The barges.” The large man turned and motioned towards the map on the table. “Three watch fires, two from barges just past this bend.” He motioned to the large bend that we had rounded on our way to the city. “The other watch fire is a small logger and farmers settlement just outside the Kingswood on the other side of the river here.” He motioned towards a large grouping of trees. I wouldn’t have called it a forest, but maybe some would.
“Any word from the Unified Orders?” Traser asked. His uncle shook his head almost sadly.
“No, but if they were to respond it would be to the town.”
“You can use the sally port, and we have a few rowboats tethered there, hidden from view.” Came the voice of one of the other two men around the table. This one was hooded, his armor was heavy, and the large two headed battle axe strapped to his back told the story of what he was capable of.
“Right, thank you Ruthgar. This way I’ll show you.” Traser’s uncle showed us where to go. At first, we entered a small side passage, but it went down at a steep angle. After a short flight of stairs, we found ourselves in a room that mirrored the one above, but with only one exit. It was filled with barrels, stored weapons, and other gear. But the central part of the room was clear. The door and the room were both large enough to allow two armed and armored cavalry riders to charge out together when open. Traser’s uncle unlatched a single door’s massive metal bar and opened it just a few feet so we could leave. The howls of an increasingly intense storm rushed in.
“You need to go now before the snow piles higher than the doors.” The large man shouted over the whistling wind. “Go directly out fifty paces, you will find the boats tied to a small harbor hidden from view by a copse of trees.” Traser stepped forward, gripped his uncle’s shoulder, and then left into the storm. Tol’geth followed after with Ailsa on his shoulder. Sighing, I stepped out into the winds of winter.
Chapter 10: River Pirates
"War makes thieves, and peace hangs them." - George Herbert
The Kings River just north of the City of Sowers Vale, 5th Novos, 2989 AoR
The cold didn’t touch me. My ring and staff were still lit. But the wind made it hard to breath blowing in my face. As I began to high step through the ever-deepening snow, I heard the wood and metal door slam shut and lock with a great creaking noise. The metal mechanism being forced back into place by Traser’s uncle.
After a few minutes of trudging forward, we found the small hidden dock. It looked like a tiny tributary had been dug and trees planted to allow six rowboats to be tied down and hidden from view of the passing barges. “It’s a speed trap,” I said, shaking my head. Ailsa giggled and my other two friends just looked at me, confused. Zed came up behind me then. I had forgotten about him as I trudged through the snow, and a pang of guilt made me wince.
“Oldest law enforcement trick in the book! Hide behind something until you catch someone doing something you don’t like. Then pop out of nowhere and give them a fat old fine. Sneaky, I like it�
�� Traser and Tol’geth both nodded with understanding, and Ailsa’s giggling intensified.
We all ended up loading up into the largest of the six boats. Tol’geth took the oars himself and within seconds we were launched out into the open river. We navigated our way towards the bend by staying close to the riverbank where the water was moving slower. That allowed Tol’geth to make actual progress, even against the current. Had we been in the center of the river, no amount of rowing would have made any progress, even by the ludicrously strong barbarian warrior.
As we rounded the bend, we saw the two flickering watch fires. They came from the first and last members of the small barge caravan. The caravan comprised three long and shallow hulled barges, each nearly identical to the one we traveled on a little over a week ago. As we got closer I could hear the sounds of men and women shouting, metal and wood clanging together, and angry voices carrying over the howl of the wind.
“We need to go past the site first, then we can use the current to our advantage as we return!” Traser shouted over the wind and sounds of battle to Tol’geth. His plan was understandable, as the three barges had landed or pulled up onto the far shore. I pulled up my mana pool as Tol’geth renewed his rowing, pulling us even faster upriver.
“Ailsa, I think we can make it over there first and the rest of you all can follow. What do you say?” I asked as I read the description of my shield spell. My mind clicked with how the same spell form could be modified slightly to allow me to do something extremely cool. The fairy giggled as she landed on my shoulder.
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