Unexplored - Rise of the Crimson Kingdom

by Alara Branwen

  Shiva quickly grew solemn. “I can appreciate someone who has been betrayed wanting to turn on their former masters. I see it all the time. However, if that’s all you’ve got, your life is forfeit.”

  “It’s not. This is part of a bigger plot, something I’ve been a part of for a long time. Thing is, I don’t know what it is. Larkin never told me.”

  “Sounds like you blindly followed orders while Wizard Asshat moved you around like a pawn on a chessboard. Very stupid. Never follow a command without thinking it through. Lucky for you, someone in this room has spun her fair share of schemes.”

  Shiva looked at her minions. “Get out.”

  The various humanoids scampered out of the room as fast as their feet could carry them.

  “Now,” Shiva said, “tell me what errands Larkin made you run. Perhaps we can piece together his little plot if we have all the clues.”

  Tatarna recounted all of her missions, starting with the the caravan robbery on the road to Caspadel. She slowly went through each story, a bitter pain swelling in her stomach as she recalled the fun she actually had with her friends. They did horrible things, but it was the first time she could say she was having genuine fun in a long time.

  As she strung the stories together she noticed a pattern. One thing led to another, each plan a logical continuation of the former. When she mentioned Caspadel the troll asked if Larkin sent soldiers to any other city. Everything slowly came together in Tatarna’s mind. When she finished with the story of Padwin’s betrayal, her eyes lit up.

  Shiva nodded. “Looks like you’ve figured it out as well.”

  The tiger girl’s brow furrowed. “But that doesn’t make enough sense. Even with all of the mobs in all of the villages combined, I don’t think he would be able to take Caspadel.”

  “If he were able to get enough of his soldiers into the city, he could take the guard by surprise. I’ve never seen Caspadel, but I don’t think it would survive if it was attacked from outside and within. It was a decent plan, even puts some of mine to shame.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  The troll sighed and placed her mace in her belt. “Try to round up what few allies that’ve rejected your master’s lure of gold and have a talk with Bigbelly. I hate that smelly ogre, but the thought of your former master using him and the other peoples in this area as fodder for his schemes doesn’t sit well with me.”

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  “You’re coming with me. In case I get in trouble, I can use you as a bargaining chip.”

  “How thoughtful.”

  “You forget that you murdered some of my villagers, this is the least you can do.”

  Tatarna didn’t feel good about it but she nodded. Her horses were brought to her, one of which had a grim looking gnoll in leather armor in the saddle. A few of the other villagers rode up to her on horses and ponies, depending on the mob’s size, with Stinking Shiva leading the way on a tall and beefy red charger. Together they rode out into the hot and windy afternoon.

  THIRTY-NINE

  Shiva rode with Tatarna at her side, leading a small procession of her villagers toward the nearest village. When she arrived, the entire population of orcs there were in an uproar. They stood around the center of the village, talking frantically in their language and waving their arms about.

  Their party rode into town unopposed and when the orcs saw them, some of them ran up to Shiva.

  “Miss Shiva, it is fortunate you’ve come, we were going to send an envoy to meet you. We are in grave peril.” The orc’s pig-like nose shivered as he spoke.

  The troll sat upright on her charger. “Peril? I see no peril. What’s the problem?”

  “The terror has not come from the outside, but from within. A messenger came from another village and said a red Wizard would take our wives away and bring us young, beautiful maidens.”

  “That doesn’t sound like such a horrid fate, at least for you.”

  “I know, it sounds great -”

  “Quivernose, what did you say to the chief troll lady?” A middle aged orc woman marched toward the male orc.

  “It’s a very, very bad thing. I love all my women and -”

  “Quivernose?” The orc woman said again.

  “I mean, my woman. I don’t want the crimson wizard to ever take her away.” Quivernose smiled at the scowling orc female.

  “All of the women in our village are angry and we haven’t had any rest all day. Our wives are making us train to fight the wizard if he shows up. Please, help us.”

  Shiva’s mouth crooked to the side. “This all sound preposterous.” The troll turned to Tatarna. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

  The tiger woman shook her head.

  “It sounds like something strange is afoot,” Shiva said. “Would one of your villagers volunteer to come with me? I will try to sort this out.”

  Quivernose quickly volunteered. He saddled a donkey faster than Tatarna thought humanly possible and they rode on toward next village. They only made it a few hundred meters when they saw a humanoid lizard running from a mob of lizard people holding weapons.

  The shrivelled lizard man ran up to Shiva.

  “Stinking Shiva,” the old lizard hissed, “help.”

  “What’s wrong?” Shiva said.

  “My villagers are trying to kill me. They claim that I am trying to sell some of our food stores to a wizard whose lackeys I talked to the other day. I wouldn’t do that. I don’t even have enough food to eat.”

  “Of course, I know your people are starving. I delivered food to you last month.”

  A mob of lizard men and women holding up their weapons appeared over the hill.

  “It is Stinking Shiva, the Rotten Gut chief,” a lizard woman shouted.

  “Our leader is trying to sell her our food, too,” a lizard man said.

  “Kill them both!” screamed another.

  Tatarna placed a hand on the hilt of her weapon but Shiva held out a hand to stop her. The troll drew her mace and held it up.

  “Noble people of the Stalking Lizard, calm your fury.”

  The mob stopped running.

  “Injustice shall never know calm, we will kill our leader and you for your betrayal,” a large lizardman leading the mob said.

  “A fair judgement, if betrayal has occurred. Now, I beseech you, tell me what happened.”

  The lizardman in the lead explained that a gnoll from another village came to tell them that village leaders were planning to siphon off food to sell to the wizard Larkin. When he finished Shiva shook her head.

  “You believed this messenger without doing any research on the matter? Did you think this messenger was there to perhaps cause trouble?”

  Tatarna smirked. “Perhaps, trolling?”

  Shiva looked back at the tiger girl. “You get one of those, and no more.”

  The lizard people spoke among themselves for a moment and their leader spoke again.

  “We quickly became enraged and we acted on instinct.”

  “Understandable under the circumstances, but these matters should be investigated before drastic measures are taken. I have come by another village that received another equally ridiculous message. I am on a search for the origin of these messages. If you are inclined, please choose a representative from your village and we will investigate this matter further.”

  The lizard people chose a representative and she joined them.

  In the next village they came to, a goblin chieftain gave an impassioned speech to her people, vehemently denying claims that she was going to sell her “weaker people” as slaves and saw them all as equals. Shiva spoke up to the crowd and corroborating the chieftains claim, citing that their people “died together as equals” when they tried to attack Shiva’s village a while back.

  Despite the backhanded insult, the chieftain used the claim to back her argument. She chose a goblin from her village to follow Shiva.

  Shiva rode among the vi
llages for hours, quelling their fears and gathering village members along the way. Her group followed a trail until they came to a village with a large goblin head placed on a pike.

  Tatarna squinted at the head. “That looks like one of the chiefs Padwin spoke to the other day.”

  “It’s Blob the Brutal,” Shiva said. “Seems like we were too late to stop his villagers from acting out the rage those strange messages caused.”

  They rode into the village to find goblins making merry and holding a feast. When the goblins saw Shiva, one went to retrieve a bare chested goblin female with a mohawk that Tatarna recognized.

  The goblin bowed to the troll. “Stinking Shiva, welcome to the village of the Deathrunner Clan. We are currently having a celebration. Please join the festivities.”

  “What are you celebrating?” Shiva said.

  “The death of our corrupt chieftain, Blob the Fatface. He was hoarding food and stuffing his face while the rest of the village starved. We have deposed him. I am currently acting as our chief until another is selected.”

  “Was he truly hoarding food?”

  “Yes, we found his hiding place in a large cavern beneath his bed.”

  “How did you learn of this?”

  “A blond elf came to us with a message from the wizard Larkin that let us know of our former leader’s treachery he -” The goblin gasped and pointed to Tatarna. “She was one of Larkin’s original messengers.”

  The new goblin chief reached for her stilettos but the troll calmed her.

  “She is no longer allied with Larkin. Do you know where this blond elf went?”

  The goblin shook her head. Shiva asked for a representative from the goblin village and the new chief volunteered herself.

  Shiva travelled to the kobold village Estelar visited to find a large number of kobold heads on pikes in the street. She found the new leader of the village was a kobold with aquamarine scales. The head of Death-on-Sands was mounted behind an oak chair that served as the kobold chief’s throne.

  In private, the new chief told Shiva of Estelar’s poor acting and using the message he received as an opportunity to overthrow the village’s oppressive leader. The troll congratulated him on his rise to power and he agreed to accompany Shiva’s party.

  Shiva went to the first village Estelar visited. She found the chief badly beaten, holding his wife in a loving embrace. His wife returned the affection as they sat in front of the hut’s fire pit. Tatarna noticed that the two young orc women she saw in the hut before were gone.

  The orc chief’s wife told Shiva the story of the message she received from Estelar. After the meeting, Shiva walked out of the hut with Tatarna at her side.

  “It seems as if your friend Estelar has caused quite a bit of trouble for the tribes in this area,” Shiva whispered to the tiger woman.

  Tatarna smiled. “I think I know what he was trying to do.”

  “I figured it out a while ago,” Shiva said.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Aid in his noble efforts, of course.”

  Shiva joined her procession of village representatives just outside the orc village. She called their attention and they turned to her.

  “Good people of the noble villages of Monster Plain. We have ridden all day, and I have discovered a hidden truth behind the messages you received.”

  “What have you learned?” a gnoll said.

  “The messages you received were true, however their intent was twisted by misunderstandings between messengers. The fiend wizard Larkin did not make a deal with your leaders, but attempted to. Your leaders, the wise and noble beings they are, would have never done such awful dealings. A few attempted to, but they reached ends deserving of their betrayals.”

  There was a muttering between the villagers. Tatarna noticed a few that either knew or suspected the troll was lying, but stayed quiet.

  “This mess was perpetrated by Larkin and his ally Bigbelly, chief of clan Big Club.”

  There was more muttering.

  “Ride back to your villages, and tell all who will hear of the wickedness of Larkin, his Crimson Warriors, and Bigbelly. Do not listen to any honeyed words they tell you, lest they fool you with their guile into doing something that might mean the death of your entire village,” Shiva finished by stomping her large foot against the ground.

  Most of the group rode away as quickly as their mounts would carry them. Shiva and Tatarna joined the group that originally left with them in Rotten Gut.

  “What do we do now?” Tatarna asked.

  “If all goes right,” Shiva said, “we wait to see the look on Bigbelly’s ugly face.”

  FORTY

  Padwin rode beside Larkin as they rode toward “Monster Plain.” It had been a full day since he’d been killed and he still hadn’t gotten over the effects of it. He was still feeling a little queasy from respawn sickness and he had lost the armor and weapons originally given to him by Larkin to that damned tiger woman. What made it worse was that he lost quite a few of the skill points he spent so long building up. He opened his character screen.

  Padwin Lvl. 8

  HP: 100%

  Stamina: 100%

  Skills Obtained

  Swords: 11

  Daggers: 1

  Heavy Armor: 2

  Status

  Healthy

  It made him sick just to look at it. He’d have to kill tons of mobs just to get back to where he was. He rested his hand on the pommel of his sword as he thought about the revenge he wanted to exact on that bitch Tatarna.

  Larkin turned his shadowed face toward him. The wizard had grown more terrifying in the short time since they left for Monster Plain. His entire body was enveloped in shadow and the aura of cold had grown immensely. Everywhere he went, the wizard looked like he was the harbinger of death. Not that that he would tell his master that.

  Larkin had been furious with him back at the guild house. He respawned back in Caspadel and, because of the Respawn Sickness, it took him a great deal of time to get back to the guild. His master berated him about wasting time and the importance of his mission. Padwin explained the reason for his tardiness and his master grew even more irate.

  Padwin took two bolts of cold to the chest and a backhand from Larkin that sent him flying through his master’s waiting room. He was close to death and thought the wizard would finish him off, but instead told him to get ready to travel to Monster Plain. He was issued some standard leather armor, a sword, and shield. It wasn’t as good as his old armor, but he figured it would be wise not to complain to a seething Larkin.

  Durga and Poppy came with him too. Both were in a battered state. Padwin assumed the guild master punished them too for being defeated by Tatarna.

  Padwin, Durga, Poppy, Larkin, and a few other Crimson Warriors approached the cave of clan Big Club and were met by Bigbelly and a few of his ogres in Bigbelly’s throne room.

  Bigbelly’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw Larkin. The massive ogre shakily bowed in the presence of the shadowed wizard.

  “E-evening. You Larkin, yes?”

  “Good evening chief Bigbelly,” Larkin said, not bothering to bow.

  “What brings you?”

  “I apologize for coming on such short notice, but I have a little favor to ask.”

  “Always happy to help wise and powerful ally. What need?”

  “I am currently undertaking a conquest, one that I wish you to be a part of. It is a large undertaking that will bring glory to you and all of your allies in Monster Plain great glory, if they wish to join me.”

  “Many tribes in Monster Plain do what I say. I’m big kahuna in area. I make sure they follow you, if cause is just, or profitable.”

  Larkin’s glowing red eyes focused on the ogre chief and the large creature blanched.

  “My cause is just, and believe me, it is profitable if you’ll follow along. The humans, elves, dwarves, and other races that call themselves civilized have taken control of
all the good land on this continent. They build cities and raise armies to persecute the goblins, gnolls, kobolds and other noble races of this land.”

  Bigbelly laughed. “I persecute them too. Goblins make funny screams when you twist their fingers off.”

  Larkin nodded and showed sharp and shining teeth. “They do indeed. But for now, they, along with the other races in this area, are needed if we are to participate in this great plan. My dream is to attack the cities that the supposedly civilized races have created, and knock them off the pedestals they’ve placed themselves on. They believe themselves superior and it’s time to show them that there are other noble peoples in this world, peoples that deserve that place on a high pedestal more than they do.”

  Bigbelly’s brow furrowed. “Aren’t you a human, or something? Can’t tell. You look, um, different.”

  Larkin cleared his throat. “I will take that as a compliment, this time. I want to gather the grand peoples of this area and attack the city of Caspadel. The humans that control that city are soft and will crumble beneath the might of the warrior bands that live here.”

  “Caspadel is city with big walls, defended by many armored warriors. They not fall so easy.”

  “I have managed to place some of my troops in the heart of the city. They currently work as guards for the duke. However, at my command, they will turn on the duke’s troops. They will be attacked from this inside as well as face the hordes that will descend from the outside.”

  “You need siege equipment to take city with walls like that.”

  “That has been arranged. I have the equipment and mages to attack their walls and take out their defenses.”

  “What in it for my tribe and other tribes. They not happy with just gold. They want good land, too.”

  “And they will have it. You believe Caspadel is the apex of my ambitions? There will be no limit to what we achieve if we work together.”

  Bigbelly sat back and stroked his massive chin. “We do great things if work together, but tribes need more immediate reward. Many chiefs not wise and think long term like us.”