by A. C Carter
Arilee took a sip of her drink. The alcohol sending a warm buzz through her body. She slowed her pace to match Leela who was in the back of the crowd.
“I never knew Chip had the gift of storytelling.” Arilee whispered to Leela.
Leela rolled her eyes. “Special Forces though?”
Arilee giggled. “I like the little embellishments. They’re fun. Although I think I heard him call me the Elven Eagle. We’ll have to work on the names. Don’t you think Blessed Leela.”
Leela smiled back, “It’s Leela the Blessed, thank you very much.” she said, jokingly.
Leela picked her head up for a moment and scanned the crowd.
“Do you see Slicks anywhere?”
“He was at the front of the crowd a moment ago. With Chip.”
Just then, the crowd started cheering.
They could hear Chip’s voice rise above it.
“That’s when Slicks came charging into the room! His righteous sword ablaze!”
Then Arilee saw Slicks shout and leap out from behind Chip, waving a flaming stick he grabbed from a nearby fire like a sword.
“I don’t remember a flaming sword.” Arilee laughed to Leela.
“Oh no Arilee, they’re drunk.”
The listening soldiers cheered even louder.
“They’re all drunk.” said Arilee, laughing harder.
The group reached the center firepit just as Chip began to describe “Arilee the Eagle perched upon high, her arrow knocked and aimed as the Goblin Warlock.” The crowd cheered the whole walk. Then when they arrived at the speech, the group dispersed into the large gathered crowd.
At the center of the camp was a large bonfire with wood stacked roughly two meters high. The wooden goblin training dummies they used earlier were stacked on top like little effigies. Many of the soldiers were already gathered.
“Let’s stay towards the back.” suggested Chip. “I don’t feel like pushing through a crowd only to get stuck in between a few big people.”
Leela raised her hand, “I agree with Chip.”
As the group settled into their spot in the back, the crowd began to cheer. Arilee could just make out the Commander walking in front of the large wood pile. Two men with large drums were seated behind him.
“Welcome soldiers of the overlord!”
The crowd cheered.
“Tonight we are here to celebrate victory!”
The drums began to bang. The crowd cheered louder. The commander waited until it settled down, before beginning again.
“Last night, the last of the vile goblins breathed its last breath. The Goblins are no more!”
The crowd cheered.
“ For the Overlord!” The commander saluted the crowd, rapping his fist on his breast plate and then raised his fist in the air.
“For the Overlord!” The crowd shouted back with a deafening roar, mimicking the salute.
The commander continued, “Already, groups are gathering to come settle these new lands. Merchants, farmers, and craftsmen of all types. And as you know all know, by decree of the Overlord, the founding company gets five percent of all yearly income! We are rich!”
The crowd cheered.
Chip looked at the rest of the group with big eyes. “We are rich?”
Slicks responded, “He meanssss the company is rich.”
Chip looked disappointed. “Oh.”
The commander continued,
“We will use this money to buy better gear, better spells, better loot. We will then go make new colonies, and get more money, and buy even better gear, and better spells.
The commander grabbed a fire torch and walked towards the giant bonfire of wood.
“We have defeated the Kobolds of the Light Woods! We have defeated the Imps of the Corder Plains. We crushed the trolls of the High Mountains! With me at your lead, and you all at my side, we are unstoppable!
He tossed the fire torch in to the woodpile. The woodpile erupted into flames.
The crowd started cheering wildly. Arilee watched the Commander exit center stage.
The soldiers all stayed gathered around the center-fire long into the night. They sang victory songs, played games, and taught each other dances. One moment in the night, the barbarians from a western tribe did a communal fire-dance around the pit. They locked arms and did a simple foot jig as they moved slowly in a circle. Members of the crowd could join in at any time and the circle would grow.
Seizing his opportunity for more fun, Chip grabbed Arilee’s hand and dragged her into the circle with him. Arilee quickly reached out at the last second and grabbed Leela to pull her in too. As the group joined the fire-dance, Arilee was surprised to look over and see Slicks sitting nearby in a drum-circle, enjoying himself.
“I’ve not seen him smile once this whole time, but now he looks so happy.” Arilee said to Leela.
“Who?” asked Leela, who was focusing more on dancing footwork than what Arilee said.
“Slicks, he’s over there laughing in the drum circle.”
Leela lifted her head, and smiled when she saw him. “Oh good for him! He seems like he can be such a grumpy lizard sometimes.”
Just then, Leela lost her footing and almost tripped. Arilee and Chip were able to quickly catch her with their arms linked.
“Okay, I think I’m ready to take a break.” said Leela, starting to sound out of breath.
“I am in for a break,” said Chip.
The group gracefully broke off from the dance circle, and made their way to find a seat on the ground. Arilee looked up to see the faint traces of light making its way over the horizon.
“Oh no. It’s almost morning!” she said to Leela and Chip.
Leela looked at Arilee, her eyes half closed. “It feels like almost morning.”
Arilee looked over at Chip, who was lying on his stomach on the ground. She poked his shoulder. “Did you fall asleep, Chip?”
Chip groaned, shifted a little, but didn’t wake up.
“I guess we should go to bed too.” Arilee said to Leela. “Help me carry him back?”
Leela stood up and brushed off her clothes. She sighed. “Okay, Mr. Chip, Arilee and I are only going to do this, this once. We’ll help you, but you still have to try to walk.” She turned to Arilee, “You grab one shoulder and I’ll grab the other.”
The two of them hoisted Chip up, and Chip was able to slowly shuffle his feet one after the other back to their tents. They found Slicks already in his tent.
"He must have come back sometime during the night." Leela said.
Arilee stumbled towards her tent finally collapsed into her bed, exhausted. Now was the time for sleep. Tonight she had fun, but tomorrow she wanted some answers.
Items and Loot
Chapter 26
The next morning, Arilee awoke to a loud clanging noise. She opened her tent flap, but then immediately closed it when the light of the sun shone through. Her headache exploded.
“Hello?” she called from inside her tent.
“Oh ho! Is that Arilee’s voice I hear waking up?” said a deep, familiar voice. A friendly voice.
“Scout Marshall Bodwin?!” Leela shouted from her tent.
“Leela!” responded the Scout Marshall.
“Stop yelling everyone!” grumbled a voice from inside Chip’s tent.
“It sounds like Chip drank too much last night,” chuckled the Scout Marshall.
Arilee equipped her clothes and walked out of her tent. She was just in time to see the Scout Marshall dragging a big bag filled with armors and weapons next to Chip’s tent.
“Poor Chip must have a raging headache. It would be a shame if someone started making a lot of noise right next to Chip’s tent.” shouted the Scout Marshall as he started to shake the bag, causing a loud clanging and banging.
“Okay, okay I’m coming out,” said Chip, stumbling from his tent. Arilee stifled a laugh when she saw he still had celebratory war paint on his face from the night before.
“Now what about Slicks?” asked the Scout Marshall, dragging the bag to near Slicks tent.
Slicks crawled out from his tent, “Pleasssse don’t do that for me. I am awake.”
Leela smiled and walked to the Scout Marshall. “So what brings you to our campsite, sir?”
“Well, I wanted to see how you all were recovering! I felt a little bad about the plan in the Goblin Caveso I also brought over some of the better loot we found in the Goblin Cave. You earned it after all.” The Scout Marshall patted the big bag in front of him.
Arilee made a serious face. “About the Goblin Cave. We still had some questions about that.”
“I’m sure you do. And I will answer all of them. The Commander wanted to speak with you too and he will be by shortly to answer your questions as well.”
“Well for starters, did you use us as bait to distract the Goblins?”
“Yes. We did. I’m not going to lie to you. The Commander didn’t want to expend any of our own troops. And we knew you were competent enough to cause enough trouble to set off the alarms. All we needed was a distraction for the wizards to get close enough and enough time for them to cast the spell.”
“And what about Scout Thomas? Did you know about him?”
“Yes. We had suspicions at least that he wasn’t who he said he was, and our first major concern was getting him away from camp. When we realized you survived the first part of the plan, the Commander wanted to use your group again for the second part. I want you to know we were prepared to use our own men, we just preferred not to. You were like a gift from the Goddess to us.”
“Did you know he was a Dark Elf?”
“No, that was a surprise to us too. To be honest, I didn’t believe in Dark Elves. They were just from scary stories our mothers would use to make us do chores and follow the rules.”
“How did you know they would all be gathered there?”
“That purple herb we recovered by the river. Healer Kaerlin knew of it and had read about its use in the dark arts. He told us peak of the full moon was the best time for them to perform it. It was a little bit of a gamble to be honest.”
“Do we know anything about the Ritual they were performing? What it does?” asked Leela.
The Scout Marshall ran his hand through his thick hair. “Not much. We figure it’s related to the corruption spreading through the woods, killing the trees and mutating the wildlife. But beyond that, we aren’t sure.”
Just then, Arilee saw the Commander coming down the path towards their campsite. The Scout Marshall turned and saw him too. He saluted. The group mimicked the Scout Marshall and saluted the Commander. Commander Bjorn laughed and waved his hands at the group.
“Oh, we don’t need that this early. Tell me Scout Marshall, where are we?”
“Well Commander, I’m just finishing answering questions and about to hand out some of that gear we found.”
“Oh good, well if questions are answered, I’ll tell you what we need next.”
“Need next? But,” Arilee started, but she stopped as the Scout Marshall gave her a look.
The Commander continued, “I’ve paid a Boat Captain his price to take you all to the Capitol City. But also I need you to do one last thing for me once you get there.” He paused for a moment, as he fished for something out of his belt pouch. He brought out a large book wrapped in a dark leather and tied securely with a rope. Arilee wondered how it fit into such a small belt pouch.
“This is the Warlock’s Grimoire. We need to know more about the Ritual they conducted, and what it means that they’re more going on around the kingdom. I need you to bring it with you and take it to the Overlord.”
“You want us to take the Grimoire? To the Overlord?” said Chip, dubiously.
“Yes. And I am sending Scout Marshall Bodwin with you.
Leela smiled excitedly, “Really? Scout Marshall, you’re staying with us?”
“Yes that is the plan. We’re just an ordinary group of a Scout Marshall bringing new recruits back for further training. Nothing out of the norm.”
The Commander continued. “Good, now that this business is taken care of, I will leave you to hand out the well-earned loot. I am needed elsewhere in the camp this morning.”
The Commander turned leave but stopped, and turned back. “Also Leela, I almost forgot. The Healer Caleb wanted to speak with you before you left. Make your stop by and see him before you leave.”
“I will. Thank you Commander!”
The Scout Marshall saluted the Commander and the group followed suit.
“For the Overlord.” said the Commander, before turning and leaving.
A quest scroll briefly appeared before Arilee.
Quest Scroll: Special Delivery: For the Overlord
- Deliver the Grimoire to the Overlord.
Accept Group Quest?
Yes
No
Arilee accepted the quest.
Accept Group Quest?
Yes
No
“Alright and now for the loot.” said the Scout Marshall, opening his bag of goodies.
***
The group happily gathered around the Scout Marshall as he reached into his bag and proceeded to distribute items to Leela, Arilee, Chip and Slicks.
“These items are some of what we found hoarded in the Goblin Caves. The higher ranking members of the camp receive a portion of all loot. I grabbed what I could for you all. A lot of it is from what the Goblins loot or steal from us. All of it should be upgrades for you though.”
The Scout Marshall retrieved a pile of green glowing scrolls from the bag and laid them on the ground.
“I also managed to convince the Commander to let me give you these as a reward for living through the mission. I told him that we would need you strong to protect the Grimoire on the trip to the Capitol. I guessed you should have gained enough experience to boost yourselves at least a few levels. You should have gained a portion of experience from every Goblin you engaged that was slain. And even though the last big group was split amongst all the soldiers at the end, it was still a lot of Goblins. You’re still pretty low level so the amount of experience points you need is less.”
Arilee realized she hadn’t checked her Stats Scroll in awhile. There had been so much excitement going on there just hadn’t been time. She called up her Stats Scroll.
Level 4 Stats Scroll
Experience
300/100
Strength
14 + 4 = 18
Agility
18 + 4 = 22
Intelligence
12
Vitality
13 + 2 = 15
Skills
Enchant Arrow +4
5/100
Multishot +5
10/100
Stealth +6
14/100
Daggers + 4
10/100
Bows +5
20/100
Group Relationships
Leela
5/5
Chip
4/5
Slicks
3/5
Leadership + 5
10/10
Relationship requirements met - Option Opened : Ask Leela about growing up in an Elven Caravan
“There’s enough Level Up scrolls for everyone to have two. I also brought along some gear to give out once you’re finished with those scrolls.
Arilee looked up from her Stats Scroll to see the rest of the group eagerly taking their Level Up Scrolls from the pile. Arilee grabbed two for herself and applied them.
Stats Scroll - Level 6
Experience
0/100
Strength
18
Agility
22
Intelligence
12
Vitality
15
“Do you have any Skill Scrolls for us, too?” asked Chip, excitedly.
“No, no Skill Scrolls. This was the best I could do.” replied the Scout Marshall.
Dialogue Scroll
-
Demand more rewards. The group risked their life and he couldn’t get Skill Scrolls?
-
Thank the Scout Marshall for his Generosity.
“Thank you anyway. We appreciate it. This is more than enough.” replied Arilee.
The Scout Marshall smiled warmly back. It did seem he genuinely was trying to make amends.
The Dialogue scroll highlighted her answer.