The Stone Tree: A LitRPG Adventure (Kingmaker Saga Book 1)

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "Are you sure you can get them to follow you?" asked Petram with an eyebrow raised.

  "I'll make sure of it," said Terran, thinking about all the rude comments Luna was going to make when she found out he'd volunteered them for another bait mission.

  "It'll be dark when the Crag Trolls attack," said Kumotake. "While I approve of your plan, how will you keep from stumbling? I see how you walk across the bridges like a newborn. You are no elf."

  Terran gritted his teeth. He knew the old elf didn't mean to be so divisive, so even though it felt like a punch to the gut, he tamped down his annoyance. He didn't want to upset the morale of the settlement before the fight. "I can see just fine in the dark. I'm not just a simple human. I have many magical resources at my fingertips."

  The response brought a lot of approving nods from the council, including from Kumotake, though his was considerably less enthusiastic than the others'. The brief anger helped smooth away the jitters Terran had felt upon arriving at the council, so he continued speaking.

  "The plan will be this. The Crag Trolls will attack at night, since that's when they are strongest. But I'll sneak up on the camp, bait them into following me up the ravine. Ara will wait at the bramble wall to let me through, and when the Crag Trolls find they can't get through, they'll be bunched up. We'll hit them with everything we've got—sap traps, logs, arrows, everything. That'll put a hurt on them, but it won't stop them.

  "Some will get through the bramble wall, there's too many for that not to happen. But that's where Lhoris and his warriors hit them with their hook blades, slow them down, hobble them enough that we can keep them busy trying to catch us while the sappers and archers chip away at their health.

  "At some point, some of them are going to go for the Mother Tree. That's where we'll make our stand. We have the advantage that if we die, we'll respawn here, but we can only do that once." Everyone nodded grimly, as they knew a second respawn would be delayed a day. "After that, our numbers will fall quickly. If we don't win, the Mother Tree will be destroyed once and for all, forever."

  The stark pronouncement was met with resolved silence. He could see it in their eyes, they were ready for the challenge, and he found when he searched his mind, he was ready too, eager to set the plans into action.

  Terran lifted his chin and spoke the ancient battle cry that he had heard from the elves. "For leaf and stone."

  Their surprised grins matched his, and together they spoke the words again, the inflection rising with their hopes.

  "For leaf and stone!"

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When the night came and Terran left the protective brambles of the settlement, his stomach was a giant lump of stone weighing him down, and he stumbled through the trees, distracted by thoughts of the mission. Luna, who had padded ahead, looked back, her eyes reflecting the orange lights in the trees.

  "You're the one that volunteered us for this suicide mission, you could at least try not to sound like a pack of rats having an orgy," she said.

  Terran grimaced. "That loud, eh?"

  "You hit three sticks and kicked a rock down the ravine in the last twenty seconds," said Luna.

  He inhaled deeply. "Nervous, I guess. The whole settlement is counting on us, and I'm not excited about having a horde of murderous Crag Trolls chasing us through the forest at night."

  Luna came over to him and put her furry paw on his leg. "Terran. I don't say this about anyone, especially you hairless rat-looking humans, but you've done pretty damn good. You could almost, and I mean almost in the barest sense, be a Rock Leaf Lynx, except of course for the sneaking. You're still a stone-footed human there."

  He scratched the little spot behind her left ear that she liked. "Thanks for the pep talk, Luna. I feel better. Just had a little anxiety. Let's go. I'll be as silent as just one rat quietly doing the nasty on himself."

  "That's the spirit," said Luna as she trotted ahead, leading him through the trees.

  The Crag Trolls had camped on the opposite hill. Even before they crossed the short valley, Terran could hear their grunts and shouts and see their greasy torches flickering through the trees. He was thankful that there was a crosswind, so the fetid stench of their bodies wasn't hitting his nose.

  They made it up near the camp, right on the outside of the firelight. He was rewarded for his careful stepping with an increase in stealth.

  [You have increased the skill Stealth]

  Stealth (AGI) 2 - skill

  Maybe you're just two rats in an awkward wheelbarrow

  Crouched behind a thick tree, Terran and Luna spied the Crag Troll camp. He counted dozens of lumpy humanoids moving about, gathering weapons and putting on armor. They were nothing like the trolls of his vision, the ones in heavy plate; rather, these had a few pieces of boiled leather or scale—a number of vambraces, a few pauldrons, one full chest piece that had a hole where something had taken out a bite.

  The weapons, on the other hand, were higher quality, like the steel maul with runic designs they'd found on the Crag Troll that had crashed the party. At least a third of them had weapons like that, while the others had cudgels made of small trees, or long bars of steel wrapped with barbed wire.

  Ready to start the chase? asked Luna in his mind.

  Every bit of him wanted to get the hell back to the safety of the settlement, but after crossing the valley and making it all the way up to the camp, he wanted to do more than jump out from behind a tree and yell, "I'm here." He wanted them enraged so they'd follow him all the way to the ravine, and he wanted to do some damage while he had the element of surprise. And lastly, he could see dim shapes on the far side of the camp that looked like tents. The Crag Trolls nearest had merely thrown their gear down when they'd arrived, so the presence of tents suggested other beings.

  Terran gestured to a clump of trees further into the camp, which would give them a good look at the tents. There was a bonfire nearby, which would make sneaking more difficult, but he hoped the Crag Trolls were too busy preparing to notice them, and his new armor helped camouflage him against the backdrop of the dark forest.

  They easily made it three trees away, crouch sneaking in short bursts when they could tell no Crag Trolls were watching, but then a single, ugly one came ambling towards their location. To Terran's horror, it stopped right behind their tree and then a horrid stream of urine shot past them to splatter into the leaves. The Crag Troll groaned as it urinated next to where they hid. The pungent scent was worse than any skunk Terran had ever smelled, making him nearly cross-eyed. He had to hold back a retch.

  When the Crag Troll ambled back into the camp, Terran and Luna quickly moved to the next tree to escape the smell.

  I think a droplet got on my paw, said Luna into his mind. You might have to cut it off after the fight.

  At their new location, they could see most of the camp. Terran counted at least fifty Crag Trolls, which was a worrisome number as even one could do significant damage. But it was the tents that concerned him most. They looked finer, made of good canvas. No Crag Troll would make or live in one, which suggested they had allies. The only thing that relieved him was that there were only three small tents.

  More importantly, Terran spied a few casks of oil, more than was necessary for torches, which suggested they were for the Mother Tree. The Crag Trolls had stacked them far from the bonfire, but close enough that it gave Terran an idea. He gestured towards them, then the fire, giving Luna an idea of his plan. She nodded as she understood the advantage of creating chaos in the camp and destroying a potential weapon against the Mother Tree.

  But there was a group of Crag Trolls camped near the casks, fitting their armor and grunting amongst themselves, clearly enjoying the pre-fight preparations. Though the Crag Trolls spoke a guttural common, they said nothing interesting enough to warrant him paying attention.

  Terran motioned for Luna to stay behind the tree, which brought a tilt of her head, but she didn't know about the new armor that Ara had made for
him. After a deep breath, Terran triggered the armor.

  You are now invisible for one minute. Aggressive actions will cancel the ability.

  He checked his arm to find that it looked exactly the same as before. In fact, he felt no different, which filled him with dread as he stepped out behind the trees. A Crag Troll stood about ten feet away, honing a rusty sword with a rock. The creature glanced up, wrinkled its lumpy forehead, and went back to its work.

  With that test out of the way, Terran hurried to the casks. There were at least five Crag Trolls within twenty feet. He glanced every which way, trying to determine a moment they weren't watching to lift a cask, but there were far too many to just haul them over to the bonfire one by one. And he only had a minute, considerably less now, and needed to hurry.

  Rather than move the casks, he quietly tipped them onto their sides, the bung facing the bonfire. Then he uncorked them, one by one, which spilled the thick lantern oil into the dirt, forming a pool amid the rocks. The glistening liquid spread out, but the slope funneled it away from the fire.

  He only had three casks open when he realized he was down to the last few seconds of his invisibility buff. Terran leapt over the casks, splashed through the oil, and made it back to the trees before he was visible again.

  Terran leaned against the tree, his heart in his throat. He wasn't finished since he hadn't lit the oil, but the armor buff only worked once per day. As he crouched behind the tree with Luna, a Crag Troll, the one that was polishing a rusty sword, wandered over to the tipped casks.

  "Shit," muttered Terran under his breath.

  His dread got worse as the troll crouched down to examine the footprint he'd left in the oil. He needed a way to get the fire into the oil without getting killed. Just lunging into the camp might light the fire, but he'd never get away once they cornered him.

  As the crouching Crag Troll's expression slowly changed from confusion to understanding, its enormous head turning in their direction, Terran reached out through the earth. His heart soared when he sensed patches of deep stone in the camp, bones of the hill that weaved in and out of the area, and while he'd previously had to touch the stone, his Earth Sense skill gave him a longer reach, so he was able to connect with a stone that was about three feet beneath the bonfire.

  As he solidified his connection, the Crag Troll stood, pointed its rusty weapon in their direction, and made a grunting call to its friends. Terran could feel Luna nudging him in the leg to get moving, since they were effectively caught.

  As the big Crag Troll loped over to them, Terran triggered Earth Geyser in that piece of deep stone beneath the bonfire. The rock was covered in dirt, so it reduced the velocity of the explosion, but it blew half the bonfire in a wide arc, spilling embers and burning logs around the section of the camp.

  Terran opened his eyes in time to see the Crag Troll lifting its rusty sword above its head, muscles flexing, as the flames behind the ugly humanoid brightened, then expanded into a white flash when the casks went up. The Crag Troll was thrown over a crouching Terran, the beastly creature protecting them from the worst of the blast.

  "Run!"

  As the scattered flames lit up the camp, the area around the trees was made visible. Dozens of Crag Troll heads turned as Terran and Luna fled, leaping over logs and crashing through saplings and undergrowth.

  A roar of rage and frustration followed, as the camp of Crag Trolls abandoned their preparations and came barreling down the slope after them, far faster than Terran would have thought, leaving him wondering if they would make it back to the settlement alive.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Trees whipped his arms and legs as he stumbled through the undergrowth barely ahead of the horde of murderous Crag Trolls. He kept his eyes on Luna's tail as she leapt over obstacles, knowing that she would unerringly lead them back.

  When they first hit the ravine, scrambling up the scree that made up the U-shaped depression, Terran was certain they'd made it. Until a Crag Troll came out of the darkness, a huge club in its meaty fist, swinging for Terran's head. He ducked under the blow, which ripped a hole in the loose soil.

  Terran reached into his pouch, turned a pine cone to stone, and sent shards into the Crag Troll's face to slow its pursuit. This enraged the massive humanoid, but it gave Terran the chance to scramble upward, bouncing off the sides of the ravine to avoid the small boulders.

  When he glanced behind him, he saw four trolls enter the ravine at once, and the narrow passage smashed their shoulders together, giving him a chance to extend his lead. It felt like the sprint up the hill took forever, but when he saw the verdant wall of foliage cutting across the hillside, and the glint of eyes in the trees, a great sense of relief overcame him.

  Almost as if she stepped out of thin air, Ara appeared, glancing back down the ravine at the Crag Trolls, whose progress had been stymied by their lack of teamwork, with each one wanting to be the first to crush his bones.

  "Come, let's away from here," said Ara, and she closed her eyes and sang a soft song.

  Almost miraculously, the bramble wall spread apart, just wide enough for the three of them to slip through. Once they were inside the settlement, Ara's second song closed the gap.

  Above them, the twang of bowstrings announced that first contact had been made. From beyond the wall came grunts and the thrashing of vegetation as the Crag Trolls tried to barrel through the thorny bush.

  Standing in a small arc around the place where they'd come through stood Lhoris and a half dozen warriors, including Chanterelle, who shot him a wink.

  "Good work, Terran," said Lhoris with a grim smile. "We heard the explosion across the valley."

  "Let's hope the next part of the battle goes as well," said Terran.

  Further discussion ended when a pair of ropes with loops at the end dropped from the bridge above. Terran grabbed a rope, while Ara claimed the other, sticking his foot in the loop. Then he was pulled into the upper regions of the tree. He climbed onto the bridge and followed Ara onto the wide branch that extended over the bramble wall to get a good look at the Crag Trolls.

  At least a dozen, maybe twenty, Crag Trolls were packed into the ravine, fighting with each other to get through the bramble wall, while the archers in the trees unleashed arrows into their thick hides. The Crag Trolls were resilient, but every little bit would chip away at their health.

  "Time for a sap trap," said Enoki, who took a small mat of leaves and dunked it into a bucket of sap. The dripping mess was attached to a hook on a long pole. Enoki hung the mat of sap-soaked leaves over the mass of trolls, found one that faced her direction, and slapped the wet mixture onto its face before it noticed the hanging hook.

  Before the Crag Troll could rip the sap trap from its mouth, Ara closed her eyes, cupped her hands around her mouth to focus the sound, and sang a short tune, the same one she used to tell the sap and leaves to harden once the armor was shaped. The mat, which had been placed over the mouth and nose of the Crag Troll, suddenly blocked all air coming in or out, and could not be easily removed, especially with its thick fingers.

  The suffocating Crag Troll turned the region in front of the bramble wall, which had been partially hacked away, into pure chaos as it leapt into the middle of its compatriots, grabbing them and motioning for the others to help him. Their help consisted of bludgeoning the suffocating troll in the head with their weapons until it lay motionless to the side.

  A cheer went up in the trees when everyone received the experience notification. Ara and her sappers prepared the next sap trap, while the Crag Trolls continued their assault against the bramble wall. But while they were making progress, he only counted half the Crag Trolls from the camp in the ravine, which meant the others were either behind or elsewhere on the barrier. Terran took the rope to the ground and motioned to Luna, who had been waiting with the warriors.

  "Come on," said Terran, "there are other Crag Trolls loose."

  The two of them sprinted into the darkness. The elf sett
lement wasn't particularly large. The Mother Tree was at the center, and two dozen or so, including the ones that made the special houses, were connected to the main tree. The bramble wall circled the area, which was maybe one hundred and fifty feet in diameter at the crown of the hill, but in the night during a battle, it seemed much larger.

  Terran could have stayed in the trees, as the bridges reached across the whole settlement, but he felt more comfortable on the ground, especially because some of his abilities required him to be in contact with the earth.

  They sprinted around the interior of the bramble wall, listening for the sounds of Crag Trolls. Around the first arc, Luna alerted him to the sounds of snoring on the other side. He climbed up a nearby tree to see over the wall, and though it was hard to catch the complete form, he could see the legs of a Crag Troll who'd hit a patch of the hibernating mushrooms.

  "Not all the Crag Trolls are asleep at the ravine," said Terran, leaping down around the same time he heard grunting and chopping from further up the wall.

  On a steeper section that was too rocky for an easy ascent, a pair of Crag Trolls had pushed themselves into a thinner patch of the bramble wall. Their curses could be heard in their guttural speech as they fought against the thorns and tightly wound branches. Their health had been reduced by the journey through the bush, but it wouldn't stop them from getting through.

  "Shit," whispered Terran. "They're halfway through."

  "Can't you stone blast them, or something?" asked Luna as she sniffed at the section of the brambles where the trolls were working themselves through.

  He put his hands on the leaves and gripped the branches, careful not to prick himself on the dagger-like thorns. "No, but I have an idea."

  The Crag Troll spied him through the foliage and grunted with laughter. "Bush no stop me, thorn like back scratch. Eat your bones, stupid elf."