by Kris Schnee
"I believe I will."
When the GMs told him he'd gotten a minor milestone and could change an aspect, Miles reworked his "Need To Learn Why I'm Here" into "Hunting the Dragon Iskandar".
9. The Gathering
Miles' next flight was a carpet ride with Thorn along. The two set the flying rug up with enough handholds to carry three people in something resembling safety, attached a bundle of food, and zoomed off to the south again.
At the kobold village they dismounted. "It's a matter of getting the right numbers," the captain said. "I'll handle this."
Miles followed warily. Thorn did the talking and presented the chief with an iron axe-head, promising more. Miles didn't see the dice rolling, but the chief seemed pleased, saying, "We guard human town, then."
Thorn explained the flying carpet. "Does one of you want to come along quickly?"
The kobolds drew back in fear from the prospect of hurtling through the air that way. Miles didn't blame them. He shrugged, then said to Thorn, "Ask them about the dragon too."
The chief explained, "Seen only few times, by night. Shadow in the sky. Freezing clouds, terrible wind."
Thorn thanked him. "What about the white-scaled tribe? Can they be reasoned with?"
"Hss! Traitor Whitescales only want to kill!"
"All right; we'll fight them. Please send your warriors north along the river to help us. We'll come back to guide and feed them. For now, take this." He offered what was left of the food supply he'd brought.
Miles boarded the rug again, saying, "That went well."
Once they were out of earshot, Thorn said, "We've gotten a few pawns to hold off the monsters' tide."
"I'm not sure we should be treating them that way."
"That's exactly what they are, if they're the creation of our captors. I will sacrifice a thousand artificial constructs if that will protect one of my crew. Are you willing to make that commitment too?"
It was a little different, standing up to Thorn when nobody else was watching. Miles felt less obligated to oppose him, and thought for a while as they flew on. "The Hexapods are watching, of course. But they know we know the kobolds don't represent them. For one thing, the Hexapods have no problem speaking our language. So, the kobolds really are constructs, game pieces. I'm willing to use them that way, but that's out-of-character knowledge. They act intelligent enough that we need to treat them decently, or they'll turn on us. So, no deliberate abuse of them."
"Reasonable," said Thorn.
* * *
Back at the base, the next step was to wait for the kobold mercenaries' arrival and prepare for another expedition. The one-crop food situation was getting unpleasant, since some of the combat-trained people were busy guarding the fort or escorting miners instead of hunting. On the plus side, there was a berry crop expected tomorrow to vary the diet. All the more reason to venture south, to get the southern crops' seeds.
Miles was surprised to find that the crew had been building up varied defenses and diversions. A reinforced stockade he could understand, and the set of pit traps beyond it made sense, but the trebuchet was an alarming addition and the basketball court had seemed to spring out of nowhere. When Miles asked, the crewmen just said, "We were bored, and there are only so many advantages we can stack up on the fort's defenses before the GMs start arbitrarily making the difficulty too high."
"Besides," added Samatra, "we can transport some of this stuff, like the trebuchet, when the time comes."
Next was the Wind Shrine mission. Eva insisted on coming along on this one to boost her own magic. Since Thorn was apparently on board with Miles' plan, Miles warily left him at the fort to keep it from getting ravaged and to make sure the kobold mercenaries didn't decide to switch sides. Miles shepherded a dozen people to the south for several days' hiking to reach the Shrine and the cleft in the hills between the world's north and south zones. He used his carpet to do some scouting and give the hikers an occasional break from walking.
As they traveled they found that Miles' past campsites were still there. Miles was a little surprised that the cloth he'd been summoning wasn't vanishing when his back was turned. That was a good thing because of the trade with the kobolds -- he wouldn't want the trade goods disappearing like fairy-gold -- but this rule did mean that if the dragon or its minions were scouting, they had an obvious trail. Between the remaining rug-walls and his teleporting big tent, they had restful nights.
The adventurers got attacked several times, first by ice golems and then by the wolf-things. Miles had officially given the group an advantage labeled [Aerial Scouting], and his own powers helped him bomb the enemy. The worst outcome was that one of the group took a major wound from a wolf's bite and had to get treated afterward using their best Heal-trained person and some bandages.
The wounded man lay there cursing inside an improvised medic tent. "If we had a proper medical bay this wouldn't be a problem."
The medic was a man named Fontenay, the ship's actual chief doctor. He told the patient, "You would've been bleeding a lot from a bite this deep. Even with modern biomods you'd be worse off than this surreal penalty flag of a wound. I feel kind of insulted having to treat these."
"You're doing a good job, doc," said Miles. "You do what you can with the tools available."
"What tools? I have crude metal picks and knives, like some nineteenth-century quack. Literally anyone could do my job here if they put "Heal 3" on their character sheet." Fontenay snorted, then turned to his patient. "That's all I can do. You'll be fine so long as you don't take more injuries soon; I suggest not doing this temple."
"We need all the powers we can get," the man said, rubbing his bandaged leg.
"Ah, crewmen ignoring medical advice; that hasn't changed."
* * *
As they climbed the hill toward its pass and the shrine entrance, Miles left them to look for the route he'd used when leaving the place. He announced to the GMs, "Seeking the back door that I propped open."
[Notice, difficulty 5.]
"Five! I've been here before."
[You didn't mark the trail, and it was designed to be obscure from the outside.]
He came back and asked Eva if she wanted to try looking. She said, "No, it won't be worth it."
"But it's a shortcut."
"Uh-huh. And if I were GMing this, I might reward the clever use of a shortcut, but I'd make sure it's nearly as difficult somehow, even if I had to stock the place with extra monsters. Let's just play this straight, since you already know the overall layout we should expect."
Miles relented. They reached the obvious front entrance and the makeshift campsite Miles had put there. Miles tried to showily push open the door for the others, but it wouldn't open. The GMs told him, [You may not enter this place twice.]
He'd been planning to help usher everyone through with his powers. "It's going to be harder than I thought," he said.
Eva cursed, but for another reason. She said, "I've just been 'invited' to stay outside with you because of the engagement aspect. Or I can pay a point to ignore it."
Miles got a similar notice, telling him he should keep Eva from going in. "That's not fair."
"Actually it totally is. We put that on our sheets in that 'trouble' aspect slot, inviting the GMs to use it against us often." She sighed. "If you want to change the aspect for strategic reasons, I understand. I really ought to go in there and do what I can to get more magic and keep everyone else alive, though."
Miles nodded and kissed her for good luck. "I'm going to fix up this camp, then take a short trip south to look for the nearest kobold village. Maybe I can get started early on re-collecting the southern crops." He looked toward the sky. "Yeah, we're each sacrificing a fate point to ignore you."
[Noted], the GMs said.
Everyone but Miles prepared to enter the Wind Shrine once he'd briefed them again on everything he'd faced in there. "It's probably going to split you into groups of three. Cover each other and work together. Coming
out of there alive is more important than 'winning'."
He watched as they cast some spells. Some sat cross-legged while others stood, each of them chanting and working on some kind of holographic rune puzzle that floated in front of them. Most succeeded, causing a glowing runic sheen to appear around their swords, spears or armor. "Why not keep doing that until your every sock and necktie is enchanted?" he asked.
Eva said, "One tool advantage per person at a time. Half the benefit of getting the body-enhancing magic from here is the ability to stick a second advantage on ourselves, or so the GMs say. It's like the fort; without the GMs imposing some limit we could put a hundred advantages on it."
He wished them all good luck, and was soon standing outside alone. "Have a good day at school," he muttered, and wondered if everyone would come back alive.
Since he wasn't useful waiting out here, he boarded his carpet again and headed south. He wasn't sure he wanted to go to the town with the Star again, for fear of seeing it'd been raided again and hated him. Instead he scouted a little ahead for the best route to the first human settlement, Hartstown, steering westward near the hills.
After miles of boring hilly grassland he said, "Hey, I can pay to invoke the setting's aspects too, right? There are Scattered Settlements, and I want to say one is right about there." He pointed to a small stream southwest of the Wind Shrine.
The GMs said, [Reasonable.] Then beneath Miles, the land reshaped. The land in a certain circle flattened as though an invisible elephant had stamped it, and then a single large earth-mound dwelling sprang up next to it. A fence sprang up from nowhere and a garden within it. This wasn't much of a village, but maybe it could help. Miles descended cautiously.
A trio of red-scaled kobolds emerged from the artificial hill to tend the garden. They looked up at the sky as though expecting more of those bug monsters, and panicked at the sight of the human. They raced back inside.
Miles reached the ground but left the carpet hovering next to him when he dismounted. "Keep the meter running." He looking into the crude wooden gate that barred the way into the kobold lair and said, "I come in peace!" To help prove it he conjured a bolt of linen again, hoping to repeat his feat of charming without the Charm skill.
He took 3 mental stress in addition to the 1 he'd gotten from activating the carpet recently, and he'd lost 2 of his 3 fate points for the day. If things turned bad he'd have to retreat quickly.
"I just want to trade," he said, holding up the new item. Wary, slitted eyes peered back. "I'll just, ah, set this down." He put it on the ground and backed away from the door.
[Charm skill 0, circumstance bonus +1, dice +0. A marginal success.]
Once he was two zones away from the entrance, according to the markings that appeared on the ground now, the door opened. A trio of kobolds looked out with their heads stacked one atop another to see. One skittered out and left a small pile of blue, apple-like fruit beside the cloth, then retreated.
Miles wondered what the GMs' purpose was in presenting him with this scenario. Certainly things would've been easier with more skill, but now they were showing him a primitive trade encounter that relied less on trust than on a sort of gift exchange. He didn't care that the offered fruit was hardly enough for a good meal, since what he needed were seeds. So, he took the offering and backed away again, leaving his own. "Thanks. I'll just be going."
Not much of an alliance, then, but it could've been worse. He spawned a second bolt of cloth to leave behind, then boarded his carpet again and took off. "I'm formally calling for a Survival roll to do some scouting of the way ahead."
The roll's result came up: [Tie. You can have a new aspect called "Scouted Path" at a minor cost, or drop the attempt.]
"What kind of cost?" he said, sitting on his rug in midair. The grassy land on the hillside looked like an easy route, but it could turn into a volcano if the GMs willed it.
[We will say, "narrative detail". It doesn't always need to be dire.]
"Fine."
The world beneath him shifted subtly. The ground was still open, but a portion of the best route became a ravine that he was sure had a [Narrow Defile] aspect. Not automatically bad, but he'd have to be careful near it, and the land around that had thorny grass.
He went back to the Wind Temple entrance to check on everyone. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw Eva waving, but a quick head count showed him five people missing. As soon as he landed he asked, "What happened?"
Two of the other crew were bandaged, one with a severe and bloodstained wrap around his chest around where Miles had been impaled on the final room's spikes. Eva herself had a lesser wound on one leg, where her new pants were gashed along with a mark on the flesh beneath. She said, "Grandis is safe, waiting by the temple exit. But we lost Dee in there, and the latest group hasn't come out at all." There was a haunted look in her eyes.
"Lost," said Miles.
"To a large stone beetle of some sort. The place wasn't completely consistent in its layout and threats."
Of the survivors, some looked satisfied but tired, and the rest were just worn down -- but for one man who glared. He told Miles, "Four dead. All because you said c'mon, let's get you some magic powers."
Miles faced him down. "You knew it was dangerous, everyone volunteered, and I gave you what information and help I could. Besides... We have reason to believe that we'll see them all again soon, once we get out of here."
Everyone clamored. "We don't know that!" someone said.
Miles answered, "That's right, we don't. And the only way we'll know for sure is to follow through and defeat this dragon, impressively enough to get the Hexapods to do more than send us off on another quest. I don't like the situation, but that's how it is." He sighed. "In any case, it would be appropriate to pray for their safety. Who will say the words?"
The man who'd confronted Miles gave him a long look, then said, "For their safety, rather than last rites. Very well."
As shipboard custom required, they prayed, but the brief ceremony was as one for comrades going into danger. The people seeing Silver Hart off years ago had given the ship and crew a similar blessing. There was a Great Work to do for humanity, and they had chosen to do it with their own risk and toil.
When it was done, Miles said, "We have our own task ahead. Let's rest up and get it done. And... where's my tent?"
"It disappeared right after you left."
"Then here it is again." He cast the summoning spell and the Stately Pleasure Dome reappeared, big enough for the whole group of explorers.
As they were starting to bed down for the night, there was a shout from the hills behind the temple. "They're back!" said their scout, running along ahead. Three more people followed. There was a little celebration in the improvised camp, with what few resources they had. "What happened?" everyone was asking.
This adventuring party was a trio of women, all of them looking bandaged and exhausted. They were stuffing their faces with food. One said, "Lots of wind and falling. Traps that threw us around. Eventually we gave up on deactivating one of the traps and had to spend an hour just forcing our way down some halls against a gale. Ugh!"
"We're all glad you made it," said Miles. The GMs had claimed just one victim today after all.
* * *
Eva found a little time alone with him that night, on a brief aerial patrol. She said, "What if there isn't a cosmic holding pen with our defeated crewmates waiting for our game to end?"
Keenly aware that the GMs were likely watching, he said, "Right now we're dealing with forces far beyond our power to fight, except on terms they allow. We may as well make the optimistic assumption and figure that the Hexapods aren't our enemies. If they really are, there isn't a whole lot we can do about it right now."
* * *
The group discussed next steps again in the morning. Most wanted to continue on to the south settlement to see their doubles for themselves, rather than regrouping at the north fort first. Since Miles had anticipated
that, he told them about his scouting. "The most obvious route I found will almost certainly have an ambush on it at a certain spot. Mechanically it's a slight net advantage for us" -- he'd earned a free +2 to one roll there, and the GMs would have to spend a fate point of their own to use the "narrow" aspect -- "but it does mean another dangerous fight. We can either have me fly north quickly with these 'apples' to plant, and carry up to two people who want to retreat, or just have me stick around. What say you?"
The badly bandaged man said, "I should head back and rest... but I'm probably not going to get credit for enough time passing so much as events passing, right? Traveling with you all and seeing the other group probably counts for more adventure experience than sitting around at base. So, ridiculously, the best medical treatment is to come along."
One of the others chuckled. "That's because Miles here is the main hero. We're the extras." Silence fell over the group. The man stammered, "It's not like we're not important! But look at him; he's got special powers so he can play by different rules, because the GMs said so. We're... we're not going to beat this dragon; he is."
A woman said, "We're the people that get killed to make him look good."
Miles said, "No! I've discussed this with Thorn already, and he's right to bring the matter up. We are not going to treat you that way. I expect you all to contribute to the work, then get to safety. For better or worse, Eva and I are the main subjects of these aliens' experiment."
"Yeah, they don't care about us."
Miles told her, "But we do, and your captain is still looking out for you. We didn't expect to find any friends in this part of space anyhow. All the more reason to work together and trust in the Maker."
* * *
The outcome of their talk was that the group agreed to spend another day camped outside the Wind Shrine. Miles upgraded the camp a little since they wouldn't have his special tent. Then he ferried a trio of men a mile away to a grove of trees, so they could cut some wood and give people something to craft with. Only then did he fly north. It took him until evening to reach Fort Necessity.
