by Aleron Kong
Caulder snapped his hand to his chest and started giving orders to his subordinates. Richter looked at his chamberlain, “Want to come?”
“I have work to do here, my lord. Unless you need me?”
“No,” Richter said shaking his head. “We haven’t come up against anything in our lands yet that a full warband shouldn’t be able to handle. If we do, then we simply won’t engage. In that eventuality, I’ll send Alma back with a message for you to prepare a larger host. If you could get some of the salted meat from the rock giant together though, that would be appreciated.”
“As you command, though we are running low after the raid on the goblins,” Randolphus agreed, bowing. “I will see to it.”
Richter nodded after him and jogged off to handle his own preparations. The last sight he had of the kindir was Caulder positioning three guards on the bridge, physically making it impossible for Shinecatcher to cross into the village.
The chaos seed sent out a mental call to his familiar who responded that she was on her way back. She’d managed two more kills that morning and his experience deficit had dropped another two thousand points. Richter poured on a little more speed, eager to be underway. If they were going to fight a nest of undead, he wanted to do it while the sun was still high in the sky.
The first stop was the Forge of Heavens. He let Krom in on what was happening. The dwarf looked extremely regretful that he couldn’t join the hunt, but the Smith knew he was needed in the smithy. After a few barked orders, Richter filled his quiver with various enchanted arrows and grabbed several more bundles for the other archers. He also filled his bag with enchanted high steel crossbow bolts. After a nearly disastrous friendly fire incident on a previous expedition, Terrod had demanded that the village casters have at least a modicum of training in the ranged weapons. Crossbows had now become the weapon of choice for casters in the village.
The dwarves also quickly and efficiently helped him into his Enhanced Sprite Armor. The chaos seed flexed after donning it, always enjoying the boost to his attributes that came from the enchanted raiment.
After that, he ran up the hill to the northern meadow. Waving to the gardeners, he stepped into the Dragon’s Cauldron. Luckily, Tabia was not in the middle of an experiment, but instead was just supervising the less skilled village alchemists as they practiced their craft.
“Greetings, my lord. You seem to be in a rush.”
“I am. I’m taking a warband out to deal with a nest of undead. I don’t know how severe the infestation is or exactly what we’re going to find, so I need anything that might be helpful.”
The brown-skinned elf might occasionally yell at her underlings, but she was also a seasoned mercenary. After hearing what was happening, she just nodded and started opening cabinets. She withdrew several sets of red, blue and green potions, for restoring health, mana and stamina respectively. There were a large number that restored about two hundred points each and a smaller number that restored almost four hundred. Then she handed over two more large trays filled with potions. One was filled with a murky dark-grey gas. A small amount of thick fluid had precipitated on the bottom. The other contained a semi-clear golden fluid that spun slowly in the vials even when it wasn’t being touched.
You have found:
Allure Potion of the Crypt Mistress x 50
Alchemy Class: Unusual
Alchemy Level: Suspension
Alchemy Strength: Enhanced
Durability: 7/7
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: This potion, once released, creates a gaseous cloud that will attract Death creatures up to level 21. The base radius of this cloud is 100 yards. Be warned. The creatures attracted may fall into a rage upon finding there is no recipient for their passions.
You have found:
Sun Lotus Poison x 50
Alchemy Class: Uncommon
Alchemy Level: Infusion
Alchemy Strength: Fortified
Durability: 7/7
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: This poison has no effect on living creatures, but can be devastating to Death creatures. Causes 48-69 damage/second of Life damage for 16 seconds
“Nice,” Richter complimented her with a smile.
“I hope they work well,” Tabia responded.
Richter’s smile slipped, “They might not work?”
“Oh, they will work, by which I mean they will have an effect,” Tabia responded, shrugging slightly. “The prompts, however, are always… ideal representations of the way a potion should perform. With the health, stamina and mana potions, I know the Recipe and so we can be almost certain the description will be correct, within a reasonable margin of error.” Richter frowned at that, but she ignored him. “These two, however,” she said gesturing to the Sun Lotus and Crypt Mistress potions, “are new formulas.” Her voice trailed off.
“Sooo?” Richter asked after a few moments of silence.
“So good luck,” she responded abruptly with a smile. Then she went back to supervising the other alchemists, clearly feeling the conversation was over. Richter supposed it was. If he wanted her to experiment and try new things, then he’d have to be okay with the results not always being perfect.
Richter put all the potions into his bag and started jogging back towards the gate. Everyone was waiting. He had expected nothing less. These were his people, his Companions, and his friends. Sion nodded at him with an easy smile. The sprite was always up for a good fight. Kentyiro was there as well, along with four other meidon sprites. Caulder had apparently decided to come along, and he had eight other guardsmen with him, including Sedrin. The nine-fingered man nodded at Richter in respect and the chaos seed nodded back. The two of them were bound forever in remembrance of a small girl named Petal.
The guards were all armed with heavy spears or maces and wore enchanted chainmail. There were four Life magi as well, there to support his group but also to offer aid to the wounded kindir. All of them were carrying crossbows. Two aeromancers and two Dark casters rounded out the party.
The max number of people Richter could include in a war party was eleven, but any neutral or ally inside of his War Leader Sphere of Influence could benefit from his open war badges. Thankfully, that included Movement Speed III, which would increase their travel through the forest by 30%. Hopefully it would offset the movement penalties from his men wearing medium armor. The chaos seed planned on only taking eleven people with him into the actual lair, but traveling through the forest in numbers was definitely advisable.
Richter handed out health potions to everyone. The fighters and archers got stamina potions. He handed out mana potions to the casters and meidon sprites. Richter also gave Beyan some of the stronger mana potions as the man was the most advanced caster in the group except for the war leader himself. Randolphus handed out the jerky made from the flesh of his old nemesis, the rock giant. The powerful meat increased Strength by three points and Constitution by two points for almost an hour. Sometimes Richter still reflected on the moral implications of having carved up the body of a sapient being and feeding it to his people. Then he would remember how much he’d hated that craggy-skinned asshole and just said ‘Fuck it.’
Preparations complete, they moved out. Shinecatcher took the lead. After enduring a few minutes of bickering, Richter decided to make Caulder pull up the rear. That meant Richter had to endure the kindir’s incessant babble, but still, it seemed preferable.
After the first mile, Alma caught up with them. She landed on Richter’s shoulder, nuzzling his cheek for a moment. Then she took off again, flying overwatch. The chaos seed felt much better with his dragonling feeding him information from above. They had been relatively safe even before his familiar had arrived though, since as usual the forest predators avoided a party as large as his.
Richter caught sight of the tracks of various monsters and beasts. Wolves, hunting cats, bears and other more exotic prints he couldn’t identify, but none were large enough or threatening enough to w
arrant diverting from their path. They continued on.
They had traveled about four miles when Alma sent him a message.
*I found something.* She sent him an image of a large tree. It was about forty feet tall. He didn’t recognize the species, but it had vines hanging down from its tallest branches almost to the ground, obscuring the dragonling’s view of most of the trunk. It was about two hundred yards east of their current position. Richter didn’t really see what had piqued her curiosity until he saw that there were bones scattered around the tree.
He called a halt, then had Caulder, Sion and Beyan come closer. He pulled out his Traveler’s Map. With a slight mental flexion, he had the map zoom in on the location of the tree. The magical scroll became a live-view monitor of exactly what Alma was seeing and relaying to her master who, in turn, relayed it to the map.
“Do any of you know what this is?” he asked.
All three of the men shook their heads, but Sion looked hesitant. At Richter’s prompting, he shrugged, “I have never seen a tree like this, but it reminds me of stories I heard as a child. Tales that parents tell their children to scare them into being good. ‘Eat your food or we will feed you to a boggin. Be nice to your brother or we’ll feed you to a gobbler tree.’ You learn that the stories aren’t true when you grow up, but as a child, tales that the very trees might kill you… It scared the piss out of me and many other sprite children.”
Richter nodded. With the sprites’ deep connection to the forest, the idea that a tree might actually mean an enemy would probably be their worst nightmare. “What was in these stories?”
“In the tales I remember, a sprite would be walking along and would suddenly be grabbed. Hundreds of vines would squeeze his arms, legs and neck. My uncle really liked talking about that part.” Sion replied with a small shudder.
“It strangles you?” Richter asked. “Then why do they call it a gobbler tree?”
“Only the lucky were killed quickly. They weren’t aware of what would happen next. Once a gobbler tree had you, it would drag you towards the trunk. There, it would put you in its mouth. The mouth would close, but it wouldn’t chew. Instead, the tree’s saliva would just start dissolving you. Ever so slowly.”
Sion’s voice grew slightly hushed as he mimicked the tone the story had been told in during his childhood. “First your eyes would sting, then your hair would fall out a bit at a time. Your skin would feel like it had been burned by the summer sun for days. After that, your skin begins to tear and you bleed. You bleed from your top to your bottom and the horrible sap is absorbed into your body. At that point, you start melting from the inside out. The whole time, you screamed, but no one can hear you inside of a gobbler tree. ‘Gobble you, gobble me, gobbled pixie, never free.’” Sion’s last words had been sing-song. He really shuddered this time, before looking at Richter. “My uncle is what you would call a ‘complete asshole’.”
The chaos seed nodded thoughtfully. “I won’t argue that, but he may have just helped save a life.” Sion looked at him quizzically, but Richter just motioned for him to follow.
They all made their way towards the tree. Richter stopped a good fifty yards away. He would have preferred to be even farther, but the forest layout didn’t allow for that. He had Caulder arrange the guards in a shield wall, and had the casters stand behind it. The meidon sprites stood in front along with Richter, arrows nocked. Their pixies flew above them, staring at the strange tree in apprehension. They had all become agitated as they approached, though none of the flying children could say why. Though they didn’t say it, Sion, Caulder, Richter and Beyan all felt the same faint unease as they approached the tree.
The reason why had become obvious to Richter as soon as the tree came into view.
Name: Abyssal Gobrit Tree (Immature)Disposition: Hateful
Gobrit trees are made from the union of a mature tree and a sakeru pixie. The celestial nature of the pixie which created this monster has allowed an abyssal seed to fester in the heart of the tree. It has not yet grown to full potency, but the pixie’s power has already made this tree formidable and dangerous.
Special Attack: Tentacle Lash – The tree can use its long vines autonomously to attack in all directions at once.
Special Attack: Corrupt – The attacks of this creation are laced with abyssal energy
Special Attack: Spawn – The gobrit can create a short-lived version of itself to aid in its defense.
Level: 3
Health: 4,738Mana: 381Stamina: 9,382
Strength: 38
Agility: 3
Dexterity: 4
Constitution: 100
Endurance: 930
Intelligence: 38
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 1
Luck: 17
After seeing the monster’s status page, a theory occurred to Richter.
*How exactly did you know this tree was a problem, my love?* Richter asked. He looked up at his familiar who was perched above him on a nearby branch.
*As soon as I saw it, something felt wrong, master. When I got closer and saw the bones, I knew that you would want to know about it.*
Richter nodded, expecting that answer. He asked everyone who had eaten the Quickening fruit if they felt something “off” about the vine-covered tree. The answer was “yes” across the board. Those who had not consumed the silver fruit didn’t have any ill feelings towards it.
Sion looked like he was about to burst from lack of information at this point. He and everyone else kept scanning the surrounding woods for attackers, though naturally their gaze was drawn again and again to the tree.
“I’ve got some things to tell all of you,” Richter began, “and you’re not going to like it.”
Sion started swearing less than a minute later.
It was clear they couldn’t just move past the tree. It would be great if they could. It wasn’t like it was about to uproot itself and chase them, after all… at least Richter didn’t think that would happen. The danger the gobrit tree posed was too great to ignore though, and even if it wasn’t a threat they had to save the sakeru pixie.
Richter explained that he had suspected the pixie might be there after hearing Sion’s singsong recitation about a gobbled pixie never being free. Obviously, some mention of a similar creature had been preserved in the wood sprites’ oral history. Gobrit had been changed in to “gobbler” throughout the years, but the warning had remained. After learning about sakeru from Elora, Richter had started considering that there might be a connection.
“You’re obviously right,” Sion told him, “but how the hell did you connect those two dots?” His voice was thick with stress at seeing a childhood nightmare come to life. He barely blinked as he stared at the abyssal tree, not willing to lose sight of it for an instant.
Richter stopped and thought about his friend’s question. He hadn’t really considered questioning his own logic before, but Sion was right. It was a real leap. Was this his increased Creativity or Intuition coming into play? The chaos seed sighed. Like so many questions, there was no way to know for sure. All he could do was focus on the now. And what mattered now was killing this tree and, ideally, recovering Elora’s lost child. He already knew that was a secondary consideration though. He couldn’t allow something abyssal to infest his lands. The fucking tree was only level three and it was already a powerhouse. Richter didn’t want to even think about how strong it could get if it advanced to level ten or twenty or, worse, if that abyssal seed inside of it matured.
“I’m not 100% sure,” Richter told his friend. “That’s not what matters anyway.”
“What does matter, my lord?” Caulder asked.
Richter looked at the sergeant with steel in his eyes, “That we send this demon back to hell.”
CHAPTER 59 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
“What?” Sion cried in disbelief. “There’s a demon too?”
“What?” Richter asked, a bit irritated. The sprite’s question was kind of ruinin
g the badass groove he was going for. “No!” he snapped. “The demon is the tree.”
“You said it’s an abyssal creature, not a demon,” Sion told him with irritation of his own.
“What’s the difference?” Richter asked. The tree still hadn’t moved at all, but it was seriously freaking him out to be having a semantics conversation so close to a monster with a crap-ton of health that had been augmented by a sakeru pixie.
“Demons come from demonic realms, not abyssal planes,” Sion told him, not taking his eyes off the tree. “And demons are friggin’ demons! We do not want one of those here and you shouldn’t speak it into existence so that one could be here!” The sprite spit to the side, something Richter had seen his people do to ward off ill intentions.
“Seems like kind of a dumb distinction,” Richter told him. His fear at being near such a large predator, mixed with his irritation, made his tone more than a bit snappy.
“It’s not dumb,” Sion spat back. “You’re dumb. The opposite of a celestial is an abyssal. The opposite of divine is demonic, and since we’re on the subject, the opposite of heavenly is hellish.”
Richter still couldn’t believe they were arguing right before battle, but at this point, his friend was seriously pissing him off, so he couldn’t let it go, “I still don’t get the difference. It’s a fucking monster from a demonesqy kind of realm. Happy now? Good enough?”
“No, I’m not, and no, it’s not,” Sion responded, clipping each word even as he kept his arrow pointed at the tree. “You told me that where you come from people fight over their skin color or political differences or sports teams! That is moronic. Creatures coming from different planes of existence have actual differences that matter!”
