The Mountain Valley War

by M. A. Carlson

“Good, then let us go find Heath and the others, hopefully, they have all learned as well,” said Gras.

  “Where are the others?” Duncan asked.

  “That . . . is a good question. I would have expected them to be training in here,” said Gras.

  “Captain Heath left a few minutes before you arrived. I made nearly 2-Gold betting with him,” said Murdock. “Which reminds me, your winnings,” he said, sliding the 5-Silver to Gras.

  “Did he say where he was going?” Gras asked.

  “Supply run,” Murdock answered.

  “Did he say where?” Gras asked, starting to get frustrated with having to ask so many questions.

  “Said he would be back soon and to wait here for him when you were done,” Murdock relayed the message.

  “And you could not have told me that to begin with?” Gras asked.

  “You did just win a bunch of coin from me, why would I want to make life easier for you?” Murdock asked, a victory smirk firmly in place.

  “Sore loser,” Gras grumbled, accepting his loss for what it was.

  “Master Sergeant,” said Duncan, sounding very formal. “Permission to dine with the soldiers.”

  “Granted,” Murdock said with a nod.

  “Thank you,” said Duncan, relaxing and wandering toward the serving line.

  “You can join him if you wish,” Murdock said, offering Gras the chance to join him.

  Gras didn’t find the idea of a meal too terrible, so he joined Duncan. With full trays, the pair sat down again with the Master Sergeant. While Gras picked at his food, Duncan all but inhaled it, looking very much like the soldiers surrounding them.

  “Alright there, mates,” Heath greeted them as he sat down next to Master Sergeant Murdock. “Weren’t waiting too long I hope.”

  “Not too long,” Gras replied stiffly. He wasn’t happy about having to wait at all but with the unpredictability of adventurers, it was something he needed to get used to. It didn’t look like they would be going anywhere any time soon.

  “Great, are you both ready to go? All skills learned?” Heath asked.

  “Yes, Captain,” said Duncan, nodding once.

  Heath smirked. “I could get used to that.”

  “Don’t,” said Evile, appearing from ‘Stealth’. “Once you leave this province it no longer counts. Also, who in their right mind would make a sexist pig like you an officer?”

  “The Duchess,” Heath answered, smirking. It looked like Evile wanted to punch that smirk right off his face. “Anyway, let us skedaddle. We’ve got bears to hunt.”

  It had been a while since the midday bell rung so it was early enough to go hunting but it was a small window and it was closing quickly.

  “Say goodbye to Hammerton, we won’t be back for a few days,” Heath said as the group gathered at the entrance to the city.

  Gras didn’t like the idea of being away for so long. He could miss out on a lot of information he felt he deserved to know. But this mission was vitally important, and he knew it, even if he didn’t know all the details of the how. Knowing they were raiding Anvilton’s resources, trying to slow down Anvilton’s war machine, meant he might miss out on a few details. Frustrating to be sure but there was no helping it.

  For now, the priority was to get his new companions ‘Scavenge’ skill up to an acceptable level for whatever it was Heath had planned.

  As soon as they were outside the gates and a good mile west of Hammerton, Heath brought them to a stop. “Okay, so you haven’t been given any of the particulars and I’m sure that’s frustrating. But secrecy is absolutely necessary. Anvilton cannot, under any circumstance, catch wind of what we’re up to out here. So, until it’s go time, we’re going to be killing bears and using ‘Scavenge’ on them. Our goal is at least Rank V for each of us. Once again, we’re lucky to have Gras, he will be in charge of teaching you and helping you rank up. So, we will be killing bears or boars we run into. They will also serve to work on our coordination. Any questions?”

  “Why ‘Scavenge?” Green asked. “I know it is good for getting meat and such but what are we going to use it for?”

  “You’ll see,” Heath promised, fighting against the grin trying to find its way onto his face. “For now, let’s get hunting, also, try your best to avoid any rock giants, we don’t need them, and they won’t benefit us right now but could draw unwanted attention for as loud as they are.”

  Heath waited a moment for any more questions, but none came. “Great, Gras, find us some bears.”

  Gras glared at Heath. He was beginning to get annoyed with the adventurer constantly ordering him around. He was the leader of the rebellion for God Ivaldi’s sake. Why was he taking orders from anyone?

  And yet, Gras followed the orders. Let his ‘Perception’ and ‘Detection’ find tracks that led them straight to a bear and then to another and another. They would ‘Scavenge’ what they could, Green happily took all the skins from the bears until his bag was full then started demanding the others carry skins for him. Most of the meat was burned with the offal and bones, but some of it was kept so it could be cooked for dinner. When every bag was full of skins, they resorted to burning the entire corpse.

  “Sunrise will come soon, let’s make camp,” Heath called out.

  Gras was absolutely exhausted. They hunted bears all night, tallying over 70 of them. But, thanks to Gras’s teaching, everyone had gotten ‘Scavenge’ to at least rank IV and Green to rank V.

  Making camp was tedious, especially as exhausted and sleep deprived as everyone was. At least everyone had a tent and sleeping roll, even Gras who Heath purchased one for.

  “We’ll rest for 12-hours. I want four rotations of 3-hours on guard duty, two-man teams,” Heath ordered. “I’ll take the first rotation with Gras. Mike, Don, you’re second. Evile, Green, you’re third. Duncan and I will take the last. We’ll rotate tomorrow.”

  There was no argument as the other adventures crawled tiredly into their tents, eager to get some much-deserved rest. While everyone else got to sleep, Gras and Heath put up a perimeter with a number of traps, mostly early warning traps that would jingle a bell or snap a branch intentionally.

  With the perimeter set, Gras sat down by the small campfire they made and skewered a piece of bear meat to cook, while Heath did the same thing next to him but with a lot more meat. “Figure the others will want to eat when it is their turn on watch.”

  Gras understood. It was thoughtful. “Doesn’t that risk drawing the attention of unwanted elements?”

  “Maybe, maybe not, that’s why we’re on watch, mate,” Heath answered, focusing on turning his bear on a stick.

  Silence hung in the air after that statement. Gras sat and cooked his bear steak, occasionally activating his ‘Detection’ skill to see if anything was approaching but nothing did.

  Heath woke their replacements then crawled inside his tent. An action Gras mirrored, finally getting some sleep. A sleep that ended far too soon for Gras’s tastes.

  “Come on, mate, up you get,” Heath said, followed by something shaking him roughly.

  Gras could only grumble as he slowly extricated himself from his bedroll. He felt as though he had barely gone to sleep.

  Finally emerging into the fading light of day, Gras was surprised to see he was the last one up. In fact, the adventurers were quickly taking down their tents and packing away their bedrolls. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and then vigorously rubbing his face and scratching his beard, Gras brought himself to full wakefulness, or at least as close to it as he could get without some strong tea or coffee.

  “We move out in 15,” Heath ordered loudly. “Pack up, eat quickly and be ready to go.”

  It took 20-minutes for everyone to get ready, not that Heath seemed to mind the extra 5-minutes.

  “We move south today. Which means we’ll be venturing into Anvilton territory. Which also means we need to be on our toes, Anvilton patrols have probably been increased,” Heath stated. “Please keep in mind, we
’re not out here to kill Anvilton citizens.”

  “What about the players that have sided with them?” Green asked.

  “They are fair game, just be smart about it,” Heath said. “Gras, lead the way.”

  Gras nodded and started them south. “Any particular destination?”

  “Do you know where the Immovable Factory is?” Heath asked.

  “Aye, I do, is that our target?” Gras asked.

  “Yes,” Heath said, finally giving the group their destination.

  “Sabotage then?” Gras asked.

  “Yes . . . and no,” said Heath grinning. “You’re just going to need to wait and see what I have in mind. For now, just get us there.”

  Gras wasn’t sure what else Heath might have in mind for the factory. Sabotage should have been plenty.

  Traveling south and then ascending the slopes of the Anvil Mountain range was slow going as it continued getting darker. Rock giants were easy enough to avoid, you could hear them coming from a hundred yards away, sometimes further. Bears were killed easily and ‘Scavenge’ used before burning the results. The Anvilton patrols were less easy to avoid. Night patrols tended to be more skilled when it came to things like seeing in the dark and seeing through ‘Stealth’. Thankfully, there were only two patrols, or at least that was all they crossed paths with.

  The Immovable Factory was a large building, carved into the face of the mountain. There were four large smokestacks barely visible further up the mountain. While the lava forge in the heart of Anvilton was the most powerful forge Anvilton had access to, it was used more often for specialized projects, advanced weaponry, and armor. But the smaller forges in the Immovable Factory were perfectly adequate for basic equipment, like the cannons and mortars this factory had been churning out for the last few years.

  Standing outside of the only doors to the factory were two-armed soldiers, both of their nameplates read. Gras didn’t recognize either of them which suggested they were not part of the rebellion.

  “Two guards should be easy to dispatch,” Evile whispered.

  “No, they can’t know we were ever here,” said Heath. “We need to find another way inside.”

  Gras frowned, he wanted to know just what Heath was up to. “There is a secret entrance,” Gras said, still unsure if it was wise to share that information.

  “Lead the way,” Heath whispered back.

  Gras led the group west to a small cave. About thirty yards inside of the cave there was a heavy metal doorway.

  “Stay alert,” Heath whispered, kneeling in front of the door. He started in earnest to pick the lock.

  “What’s down there?” Evile asked, motioning to the rest of the cave that continued into the mountain.

  “Nothing,” Gras answered. “Sometimes a beast, usually a bear or boar, will make it home, but the soldiers regularly clear out anything that does.”

  “And if it's not a bear or boar?” Evile asked.

  “I’ve heard they found a hairless yeti in there before, but I doubt that’s true,” Gras whispered.

  With an echoing click, the lock on the door released. Heath stood back up and turned to face the group, not opening the door.

  “Here, thought you might need these,” Heath said, holding out a pair of wrenches and screwdrivers to Gras.

  Gras furrowed his brow in confusion before accepting the tools. “What are you planning?”

  “The ‘Scavenge’ skill works on the mechanical as well as the biological, right?” Heath asked, giving Gras his first clue as to what was coming.

  “Are we stealing cannon parts?” Green asked.

  “We aren’t stealing anything. Operation Gremlin is about getting the Anvilton Dwarves to willingly shut down the factory themselves,” Heath answered.

  “How do we do that?” Evile asked.

  “Gras, how do Dwarves feel about gremlins?” Heath asked.

  “Terrified of them. They are an unfathomable enemy who causes nothing but chaos and destruction in their wake. And may the God Ivaldi spare any Dwarf dumb enough to cause injury to one of them,” Gras answered.

  “Chaos, you say?” Don and Mike asked together.

  “Chaos,” Heath said, his grin growing.

  “I see,” said Evile, giggling behind her mask.

  Gras frowned. He still didn’t understand what was going on. “I do not understand. Are we planting gremlins in the factory?”

  “No, we are the gremlins,” said Duncan.

  Gras frowned for a moment as he considered the statement. Then he giggled. “You adventurers really are devious. So, we’re going inside to disassemble as much as possible?”

  “Correct,” said Heath. “And that is only phase one. So, get in there, learn the layout and disassemble a few things. Now, let’s get to work,” he added before vanishing from sight, the door opening a moment later.

  The adventurers were quick to follow.

  Gras looked back down the cave leading deeper into the mountain then back to the door and back to the cave. He grinned a little, brandishing the new tools Heath gave him, he set to work. The gremlins needed to come from somewhere after all.

  Chapter 21 – Gras

  After disassembling the lock of the door, Gras quickly moved on to the latch and finally the hinges, making sure he left the door lying flat with the parts scattered all around. He went so far as to make sure even the doorframe was ready to fall apart the first time someone touched it, such was a common thing from gremlins.

  Inside, Gras randomly disassembled the lanterns that hung in the hallway, something Heath and the others ignored foolishly. If Gras had known what Heath planned, he might have been better prepared to help with the planning. However, given the need for secrecy, he couldn’t be too upset. He would just need to make sure he did everything in his power to cover for the deficiencies of the others.

  Past the tunnel, the workshop or rather the factory floor away from the four blast furnaces, cannons were partially disassembled, bolts were lying about at random, a wheel, set to fall off the instant the cannon it belonged to was moved. Despite the glaring mistake of skipping the hallway, the adventurers were doing surprisingly well, very gremlin-like indeed.

  The only source of light was from the little bit of moonlight that passed through the dirty windows of the factory front and the few embers from the forges that weren’t completely extinguished. Gras knew those fires still burned hot and bright under the top layer, a few stokes to the fire and they would rage hot and bright and undoubtedly draw more attention from the soldiers if they were to do so.

  The sound of metal hitting the ground with a loud clank and rattle before it settled caused the adventurers to freeze and vanish, appropriately so when the doors opened. Gras activated his own ‘Stealth’ skill and quickly moved under one of the large assembly tables where there was plenty of shadows to hide in thanks to the torch the two Dwarves carried.

  “I swear, I heard something Avit,” said one of the two Shale Dwarf soldiers, a torch in one hand and an ax in the other.

  “Probably a rodent,” the Dwarf that must have been Avit replied. It was too dark to make out anything specific about them other than having similarly styled beards and prominent noses. The pair did a quick circle of the factory floor. “Nothing here. It must have been a rodent, Bastien.”

  Bastien frowned, the wavering light of the torch etching the lines on his face in shadow making him look much more menacing. “Whatever, the rotten little beast must have knocked something off one of the tables. That said, looks like the workers have been getting lazy again. We should tell the foreman about this mess, make sure he whips those lazy bastards back into shape.”

  “Bastien, you take far too much pleasure from seeing your fellow Dwarves hurt, it is not like they are Bronzies you know?” Avit said.

  Bastien ignored the remark, stomping toward the front door.

  Avit sighed and followed after him, the doors slamming and locking a second later.

 
Gras wanted very badly to kill at least Bastien. It was inconceivable that a Shale Dwarf would want any of his fellow Dwarves whipped. How could his people have sunk so low? Just how depraved and cruel had his father become?

  Heath reappeared first in the dimly lit factory, quickly signaling the others to follow him out the way they came in.

  Gras rushed after Heath, making sure he showed Heath and the others the state of the door, so they didn’t accidentally undo his hard work.

  The group ran silently across the valley, setting up camp once they were firmly on the Hammerton side.

  “Nice work tonight, chaps,” said Heath, breaking the silence now that they were safe . . . well safer than if they stayed on the other side of the valley. “I need to ask, who made the noise?”

  “Ah, sorry, that was me,” said Green. “I bumped a table, I held the table so it wouldn’t make noise, but a rod of some kind rolled off it.”

  “It’s fine,” said Heath. “Probably worked to our benefit. We might need to repeat it tomorrow night, just . . . better planned for.”

  “If I might,” Gras started, waiting a moment for Heath to give him the go ahead. “While not much is known about gremlins, we do know a few things. Particularly how their infestations start out. Tonight, was a good first strike. In the early days, gremlins will only attack at night or when no one is present, we do not know for sure why that is, but it is believed that they have not yet mastered their own version of ‘Stealth’ yet. Once they have, attacks will happen at any time, day or night. And when I say attacks, I mean the sudden disassembly of a tool, a weapon, a table, a gangplank . . . you get the idea.”

  “What is the fastest a gremlin attack has escalated?” Heath asked.

  “Three days as far as I know,” Gras replied.

  “Right, tomorrow more of the same then but on a grander scale. Also, I want to purposely draw those soldiers inside again. A few times if we can manage it. I want them really jumping at shadows,” Heath said with a grin. “For now, we need food, any volunteer to cook?”

  “I’ve got it,” said Duncan, moving to their small fire and spit first.

  “Thanks, mate,” said Heath. “Everyone, get hunting, we’ve still got hours until daybreak.”