“If he is a Beast when I go to see him, I shall roar my loudest, and so frighten him that he will grant all I ask. And if he is the lovely Lady, I shall pretend to spring upon her, and so compel her to do my bidding. And if he is the great Head, he will be at my mercy; for I will roll this head all about the room until he promises to give us what we desire. So be of good cheer, my friends, for all will yet be well.”
The next morning the soldier with the green whiskers led the Lioness to the great Throne Room and bade her enter the presence of Oz.
The Lioness at once passed through the door, and glancing around saw, to her surprise, that before the throne was a Ball of Fire, so fierce and glowing she could scarcely bear to gaze upon it. Her first thought was that Oz had by accident caught on fire and was burning up; but when she tried to go nearer, the heat was so intense that it singed her whiskers, and she crept back tremblingly to a spot nearer the door.
Then a low, quiet voice came from the Ball of Fire, and these were the words it spoke:
“I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Who are you, and why do you seek me?”
And the Lioness answered, “I am a Cowardly Lioness, a Barbarian who cannot Rage. I came to you to beg that you give me back my ability to Rage, so that in reality I may become the Queen of Beasts, as men call me.”
“Why should I restore your Rage?” demanded Oz.
“Because of all Wizards you are the greatest, and a Dispel Magic from you will have the power to grant my request,” answered the Lioness.
The Ball of Fire burned fiercely for a time, and the voice said, “Bring me proof that the Wicked Witch is dead, and that moment I will give you back your Rage. But as long as the Witch lives, you must remain a Barbarian without your greatest ability.”
The Lioness was angry at this speech, but could say nothing in reply, and while she stood silently gazing at the Ball of Fire it became so furiously hot that she turned tail and rushed from the room. She was glad to find her friends waiting for her, and told them of her terrible interview with the Wizard.
“What shall we do now?” asked Dorothy sadly.
“There is only one thing we can do,” returned the Lioness, “and that is to go to the land of the Winkies, seek out the Wicked Witch, and destroy her.”
“But suppose we cannot?” said the girl.
“Then I shall never be able to Rage,” declared the Lioness.
“And I shall never have my Intelligence restored,” added the Scarecrow.
“And I shall never be a Paladin again,” spoke the Tin Woman.
“And I shall never see Aunt Em and Uncle Henry,” said Dorothy, beginning to cry.
“Be careful!” cried the green girl. “The tears will fall on your green silk gown and spot it.”
So Dorothy dried her eyes and said, “I suppose we must try it; but I am sure we are heading for a wipe and the quest will not prove worthwhile, even to see Aunt Em again.”
“I will go with you; but without Rage, I won’t be able to kill the Witch,” said the Lioness.
“I will go too,” declared the Scarecrow; “but I shall not be of much help to you without my Bard abilities, I am such a fool.”
“I haven’t the Paladin Code of Conduct to adhere to, yet it seems to me wrong to set out to harm anyone, even a Witch,” remarked the Tin Woman; “but if you go I certainly shall go with you and if I happen to inadvertently share in XP and treasure from your wicked actions I shall at least be on hand to point out what a Lawful Good person should have done.”
Therefore it was decided to start upon their journey the next morning, and the Tin Woman sharpened her axe on a green grindstone and had all her joints properly oiled. The Scarecrow stuffed himself with fresh straw and Dorothy put new paint on his eyes that he might see better. The green girl, who was very kind to them, filled Dorothy’s basket with good things to eat, and fastened a little bell around Toto’s neck with a green ribbon which he removed as soon as she had left. For much as he admired the pretty bell, alerting your enemies to your presence did not seem like a good idea to Toto.
They went to bed quite early and slept soundly until daylight, when they were awakened by the crowing of a green cock that lived in the backyard of the Palace, and the cackling of a hen that had laid a green egg.
Chapter XII
The Search for the Wicked Witch
The soldier with the green whiskers led them through the streets of the Emerald City until they reached the room where the Guardian of the Gates lived. This officer unlocked their spectacles to put them back in his great box, and then he politely opened the gate for our friends.
“Which road leads to the Wicked Witch of the West?” asked Dorothy.
“There is no road,” answered the Guardian of the Gates. “No one ever wishes to go that way.”
“How, then, are we to find her?” inquired the girl.
“That will be easy,” replied the man, “for when she knows you are in the country of the Winkies she will find you, and make you all her slaves.”
“Perhaps not,” said the Scarecrow, “for we mean to destroy her.”
“Oh, that is different,” said the Guardian of the Gates. “No one has ever destroyed her before, so I naturally thought she would make slaves of you, as she has of the rest. But take care; for she is wicked and fierce, and may not allow you to destroy her. Keep to the West, where the sun sets, and you cannot fail to find her.”
They thanked him and bade him good-bye, and turned toward the West, walking over fields of soft grass dotted here and there with daisies and buttercups. Dorothy still wore the pretty silk dress she had put on in the palace, but now, to her surprise, she found it was no longer green, but pure white.
The Emerald City was soon left far behind. As they advanced the ground became rougher and hillier, for there were no farms nor houses in this country of the West, and the ground was untilled.
In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lioness were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Tin Woman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.
Now, the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was an Eye of the Eagle; it was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothy lying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were a long distance off, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in her country; so she blew upon a silver whistle of Monster Summoning V that hung around her neck.
At once there came running to her from all directions a pack of great wolves. They had long legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth.
“Go to those people,” said the Witch, “and tear them to pieces.”
“Are you not going to make them your slaves?” asked the leader of the wolves.
“No,” she answered, “one is of tin, and one of straw; one is a girl and another a Lioness. None of them is fit to work, so you may tear them into small pieces.”
“Very well,” said the wolf, and he dashed away at full speed, followed by the others.
It was lucky the Scarecrow and the Tin Woman were wide awake and heard the wolves coming.
“I can tank these,” said the Tin Woman, “my natural armor class and my damage shield are so high, they will only hurt me on a critical. So get behind me and I will meet them as they come.”
“I’m useless,” answered the Scarecrow miserably, “but I shall wake Dorothy and offer you all what encouragement I can without an actual magical performance.”
No sooner had Dorothy been alerted to the crisis, than she cast Haste on the party. With Tin Woman on one side and the Lioness on the other (and Toto barking bravely), Dorothy and the Scarecrow were protected while forty wolves circled the them, growling and making feint attacks.
It was clear that the moment was coming in which all the wolves would charge. Dorothy’s spell gems had been grayed out following the Haste but returned to ac
tive status just in time. As the wolves edged forward, she cast a Stinking Cloud between the Lioness and the attackers, forcing the wolves on that side of the party to recoil or fall Nauseated if they failed their fortitude checks. The Scarecrow, having no need to breathe, dashed into the cloud and dropped heavy rocks on the stricken ones.
On the other side of the battle, the Tin Woman seized her axe, which she had made very sharp, and as the leader of the wolves came on the Tin Woman swung her arm and scored a critical hit, chopping the wolf’s head from its body, so that it immediately died. As soon as she could raise her axe another wolf came up, and he also fell under the sharp edge of the Tin Woman’s weapon.
Possessing as she did a maxed Opportune Blow skill, no wolf could pass by the Tin Woman without incurring an attack of opportunity, and with a run of perfectly placed blows, she intercepted the attackers before they could reach Dorothy.
As for the young Sorceress, she was calmly firing Magic Missiles as often as her spell gems allowed, emptying her mana bar but destroying those wolves that had skirted the Stinking Cloud.
Eventually, every wolf was dead.
You have killed 40 wolves!
+ 35,000 XP
“Halfway to level nine,” Dorothy announced, pleased.
The Tin Woman put down her axe and sat beside the Scarecrow, saying, “It was a good fight, friend.”
“Yes, although I’m a little disappointed with the loot, just this High-Quality Wolf Pelt.”
Standing among all the dead wolves, Dorothy did not feel like breakfast, so they started again upon their journey.
Now this same morning the Wicked Witch came to the door of her castle and looked out with her Eye of the Eagle. She saw that the strangers were still traveling through her country. This made her angrier than before, and she blew her silver whistle of Monster Summoning V again.
Straightaway a great flock of wild crows came flying toward her, enough to darken the sky.
And the Wicked Witch said to the King Crow, “Fly at once to the strangers; peck out their eyes and tear them to pieces.”
The wild crows flew in one great flock toward Dorothy and her companions. When the little girl saw them coming she was afraid. “Tin Woman, you will never be able to intercept all these.”
But the Scarecrow said, “This is my battle, so cast Haste then lie down beside me and you will not be harmed.”
So as soon as Dorothy was done, they all lay upon the ground except the Scarecrow, and he stood up and stretched out his arms. And when the crows saw him they were frightened, as these birds always are by scarecrows, and did not dare to come any nearer. But the King Crow said:
“It is only a stuffed man. I will peck his eyes out.”
The King Crow flew at the Scarecrow and managed a triple attack into Scarecrows eyes, which would have blinded any normal character. Scarecrow, however, reached up unperturbed, caught the bird by the head and twisted its neck until it died. And then the other crows flew at him, but their pecks were largely ineffectual, for the Scarecrow could not bleed. There were forty crows, and forty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck, until at last all were lying dead beside him. Then he called to his companions to rise, and again they went upon their journey.
You have killed 39 giant crows and King Crow!
+ 41,500 XP
“Some good XP there,” announced Scarecrow, “but once again, no loot to speak of.”
“Eighty percent of the way to level nine,” said Dorothy cheerfully. “There’s a lot to be said for being made of straw. That’s a nice exploit.”
When the Wicked Witch looked out again and saw all her crows lying in a heap, she got into a terrible rage, and blew again upon her silver whistle of Monster Summoning V.
Forthwith there was heard a great buzzing in the air, and a swarm of black bees came flying toward her.
“Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch, and the bees turned and flew rapidly until they came to where Dorothy and her friends were walking. But the Tin Woman had seen them coming, and the Scarecrow had decided what to do.
“Take out my straw and scatter it over the little girl and the dog and the Lioness,” he said to the Tin Woman, “and the bees cannot sting them.”
“That is a foolish idea,” said Dorothy, “you don’t have enough straw in you and the bees would find a way through it. No, we had better Hide: that is, everyone but the Tin Woman who can stand in the open in that patch of sunlight and try to get the aggro.”
The bees came and found Scarecrow, who had fumbled his Hide check. But no one else was visible except the bright, shining Tin Woman. The bees therefore rushed at the two figures, expending their stings uselessly on Scarecrow and breaking off all their stings against the armor of the Tin Woman, without hurting either of them at all. And as bees cannot live when their stings are gone that was the end of the black bees, and they lay scattered thick about the glade, like little heaps of fine coal.
You have killed 40 giant bees!
+ 44,000 XP
Then Dorothy, Toto and the Lioness came out of the bushes.
“Ding! I’ve reached Level Four in Warrior,” said Tin Woman, “but I do wish we could have used that exploit to help me level in Paladin.”
The Wicked Witch was so angry when she saw her black bees in little heaps like fine coal that she stamped her foot and tore her hair and gnashed her teeth. And then she called a dozen of her slaves, who were the Winkies, and gave them sharp spears, telling them to go to the strangers and destroy them.
The Winkies were not a brave people, but they had to do as they were told. So they marched away until they came near to Dorothy. Then the Lioness gave a great roar and sprang towards them, and the poor Winkies were so frightened that they ran back as fast as they could.
“Oh,” said Dorothy, disappointed, “I might have reached level nine if they had stayed for a fight.”
When the Winkies returned to the castle the Wicked Witch beat them well with a strap, and sent them back to their work, after which she sat down to think what she should do next. She could not understand how all her plans to destroy these strangers had failed; but she was a powerful Witch, as well as a wicked one, and she soon made up her mind how to act.
There was, in her cupboard, a Golden Cap, with a circle of diamonds and rubies running round it. This Golden Cap had a charm. Whoever owned it could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys, who would obey any order they were given. But no person could command these strange creatures more than three times. Twice already the Wicked Witch had used the charm of the Cap. Once was when she had made the Winkies her slaves, and set herself to rule over their country. The Winged Monkeys had helped her do this. The second time was when she had fought against the Great Oz himself, and driven him out of the land of the West. The Winged Monkeys had also helped her in doing this. Only once more could she use this Golden Cap, for which reason she did not like to do so until all her other powers were exhausted. But now that the three daily usages of her ring of Monster Summoning V were spent, and her slaves had been scared away by the Cowardly Lioness, she saw there was only one way left to destroy Dorothy and her friends.
So the Wicked Witch took the Golden Cap from her cupboard and placed it upon her head. Then she stood upon her left foot and said slowly:
“Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!”
Next she stood upon her right foot and said:
“Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!”
After this she stood upon both feet and cried in a loud voice:
“Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!”
Now the charm began to work. The sky was darkened, and a low rumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of many wings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of the dark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, each with a pair of immense and powerful wings on his shoulders.
One, much bigger than the others, seemed to be their leader. He flew close to the Witch and said, “You have called us for the third an
d last time. What do you command?”
“Go to the strangers who are within my land and destroy them all except the Lioness,” said the Wicked Witch. “Bring that beast to me, for I have a mind to harness her like a horse, and make her work.”
“Your commands shall be obeyed,” said the leader. Then, with a great deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew away to the place where Dorothy and her friends were walking.
The attack of the Winged Monkeys was so swift that Dorothy barely had time to cast Haste before the monsters were on top of the party. Although the Tin Woman struck out as skillfully as ever, she was soon overwhelmed and having been grappled, was carried through the air until her captors were over a country thickly covered with sharp rocks. Here they dropped the poor Tin Woman, who fell a great distance to the rocks, where she lay so battered and dented that she could neither move nor groan.
Others of the Monkeys caught the Scarecrow, and with their long fingers pulled all of the straw out of his clothes and head. They made his hat and boots and clothes into a small bundle and threw it into the top branches of a tall tree.
The remaining Monkeys threw pieces of stout rope around the Lioness and wound many coils about her body and head and legs, until she was unable to bite or scratch or struggle in any way. Then they lifted her up and flew away with her to the Witch’s castle, where she was placed in a small yard with a high iron fence around it, so that she could not escape.
But Dorothy they did not harm at all. She stood, with Toto in her arms, watching the sad fate of her comrades and thinking it would soon be her turn. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew up to her, his long, hairy arms stretched out and his ugly face grinning terribly; but he saw the mark of the Good Witch’s kiss upon her forehead and stopped short, motioning the others not to touch her.
The Wonderful LitRPG Wizard of Oz (LitRPG Classics Book 1) Page 8
