by Dean Henegar
Jurgen’s attention was drawn to the strange bunny creatures as several stopped and raised their noses in the air, sniffing out something. The something they were sniffing out proved to be him and his fellow scouts. Almost as one, the bunnies dropped down and began to run in several directions. Five or six of the razorbunnies were headed right toward him. Jurgen jumped up, no longer worried about concealment, and ran for the road that led to Holdfast. Imperium scouts were renowned for their ability to cover ground without tiring, and Jurgen considered himself one of the best distance runners in the legion. He had no idea what a razorbunny would do when it caught him, but the name implied that his fate wouldn’t be a pleasant one.
Despite his speed, the half dozen bunnies were catching up to him. His desperate pace and heavy gear began to take its toll as Jurgen made it to the road. While the road gave him a small speed buff, it also did the same for the bunnies on his tail, bunnies that weren’t showing any sign of slowing down. One of his scout abilities notified him that there was something else stalking him, perhaps some other creature the invaders had dropped off after he began his retreat. Still, he couldn’t worry about it now; the bunnies were only a dozen yards behind and closing. They were going to catch him, and Jurgen looked for a good place to make his stand.
Turning around, he readied his crossbow, then fired at the nearest bunny before drawing his sword. The bolt slammed into the lead bunny, causing it to make a pitiful screeching noise that seemed to infuriate the others. Just before the bunnies reached him, they stopped, sniffed the air, and turned toward their right. The tall grass at the side of the road began to ripple as something crawled closer. A giant creature stood from a depression in the ground and charged. Instead of blasting into him, the creature ran past, zeroing in on the bunnies. The monster unleashed a roaring screech from its giant beak of a mouth as it passed.
Recognition, as well as fear, hit Jurgen as he looked at the creature. This wasn’t another invader; it was one of the owlbears that were occasionally spotted in the area. The garrison had been forced to engage one of the creatures a while back when the transition point first fell under Imperium control. It had taken the better part of a platoon to fight it off, if Jurgen remembered the story correctly.
The beak of the owlbear snapped forward, taking the head off the bunny nearest to the road. Swallowing down its prize, the owlbear stood on its hind legs, reaching a height of over nine feet, and then swiped its vicious claws at the remaining bunnies. Jurgen was shocked when the bunnies rushed to engage and did not scatter in fear. Two bunnies were swatted down by the claws, each blow ripping open the charging rabbits. Three of the bunnies made it past the sweeping arms and attacked the owlbear. One bunny bit into the owlbear’s leg and the other two latched onto its torso.
The owlbear shrieked again, this time in pain as the bunnies made a strange noise with their mouths. Blood spurted from where the bunnies were attached, even as the owlbear slammed one of the bunnies attached to its chest with both paws. The bunny was ripped in two by the blow and a portion of the carcass with the head still attached landed at Jurgen’s feet. The mouth had several rings of razor-sharp teeth that were spinning around and shredding a chunk of meat from the owlbear.
Jurgen sheathed his sword and began to reload his crossbow, knowing he couldn’t outrun either of the creatures, but he just might have a chance to defeat the weakened survivor of the fight. Fumbling for a moment with the bolt, Jurgen loaded the weapon and pulled it up to his shoulder. But who to fire at? The owlbear was the larger target, but the bunnies were the true invaders. Sighting in the weapon, Jurgen fired into a bunny boring its way into the owlbear’s chest. The bolt slammed into the bunny’s body, causing it to flinch and release its hold on the owlbear.
Reloading, Jurgen saw the bunny return its focus to him. The monstrous animal gave a horrifying grin of swirling teeth as it hopped toward him. Before it could hop any closer, the owlbear reached out with its arms, hooked its claws into the bunny, and raised it toward its waiting beak. Jurgen completed his reload and fired again, hitting the bunny still attached to the owlbear’s leg. The targeted bunny squealed in pain, letting go as the owlbear dropped down onto all fours. With a snap of its beak, the owlbear finished off the wounded bunny before turning to face Jurgen.
Freezing mid-reload, Jurgen stared back at the owlbear, waiting for its inevitable charge. Instead of charging into him, the owlbear turned away, grabbed the largest of the dead bunnies in its beak, and limped its way back into the tall brush. Not sure why it let him live and not wanting to stick around and press his luck, Jurgen continued down the road, ready to give his report on the invaders’ progress once he made it to Holdfast.
Chapter 19
“Tavers, hold fire. We don’t want to draw their attention just yet,” I ordered after seeing the reloaded catapults aiming toward the retreating army.
“Roger that, sir. We’ll be ready when you need us,” Tavers said.
The enemy had given us a reprieve, and I intended to use every moment to my advantage. Sergeant Brooks, freshly bandaged by the medics, was organizing the main line by hauling away the remains of the undead giants along with the mounds of corpses clogging up the battlefield.
“Do you want me to order out the skirmishers?” Beremund asked.
“Yes, just have them keep their distance and hold their fire for now,” I replied. The Drebix baresark wasn’t in their chain of command, but the men followed when he ordered my scouts to move out along with his skirmishers. The medics were working overtime, slapping bandages onto any injured troops, the magic of the game healing grievous wounds even if they weren’t anywhere near where the bandage was placed. Realizing that Tavers had the right idea, I hopped up into the wagon next to him for a better view of the fight going on in Narbos’s camp. A swarm of the ugly hairless werewolf-looking creatures was cutting its way into Narbos’s executioners as they tried to reach their target.
War has been declared between the Hypogean forces of the Zisilerpicazant clan and the zone of Hayden’s Knoll.
“Woah, what is going on here?” I muttered to myself as more prompts began to appear. Was Zipp attacking for himself or was this some new force?
Quest Updated: Defender of the Imperium. You must now also defend the zone from the Zisilerpicazant clan to claim the rewards.
Your zone of Hayden’s Knoll is under assault by another powerful enemy faction. Players involved in the war against Bharga’s Crossing will automatically be added to the fight against the Zisilerpicazant clan.
This was already going to be a hard fight, and adding a second invader was only going to make things worse. Looking over to Narbos’s camp and the fight going on there, I was beginning to think that Zipp had backstabbed his ally. I was curious about how Narbos was going to react to this.
The Zisilerpicazant faction has taken control of the eastern transition point of Hayden’s Knoll.
That confirmed it. Apparently we were in a three-way war here in my zone. There were two ways to win this kind of fight: pulling back and letting your foes hammer away at each other until you took on the weakened victor or joining forces with one side and overwhelming the remaining faction. I couldn’t see teaming up with either of them, so it was time to rethink our strategy.
“Runner, have my command staff and the other leaders join me here at this wagon. There’s a new twist in our little war,” I ordered. Runners shot out through our forces to gather the leaders. My original plan was to bleed out Narbos’s army here, but if another army was rampaging through the zone, we might need to preserve our forces as much as possible, especially with the restricted reinforcement rate. While I waited for the others, I continued to observe the fight over at Narbos’s camp.
Narbos had the upper hand, and the attackers were dropping quickly to his forces. The last of the monsters were just now being hacked down as the retreating army joined in. It would take Narbos quite a while to sort out his forces and reform for an attack, time we could use to impr
ove our position or withdraw from this battle, depending on what we decided. Out on the battlefield, the centaurs of the Devlin Horde were plucking arrows from their victims, placing the undamaged ones back into their quivers while keeping one eye on the enemy. I desperately wanted to do a headcount to see what our total casualties were, but I couldn’t justify stopping the work on the defenses to do so.
“Sir, what’s going on with our enemy? Are they still fighting among themselves?” Brooks asked as the others drifted in to join us.
“They’ve stopped fighting for the moment, and it looks like Narbos was able to fight off those lurker creatures that attacked. It also appears that we have a new faction invading our zone. I just received notice that a force called the Zisilerpicazant clan has declared war on us. The imp that Narbos was working with was called Zipzisilerpicazant, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. It looks like this just became a three-way war, and I have no idea what this other army consists of. The imp’s army has taken the eastern transition point, so we need scouts out there to get eyes on what’s coming for us. I also need your input on our best course of action now that we have two armies to deal with,” I said, willing to look at any options they might present.
“Raytak, I think you are wrong,” Stench rumbled. I thought I could detect some amusement in his words, but it was hard to tell with an ogre.
“What do you mean? Do you think this other faction isn’t a threat?” I asked, confused.
“Ha, no, you’re wrong about the fight over at the enemy camp being over,” Stench said while pointing toward Narbos’s army; his greater height let him see over the tops of our troops working on the defenses.
I hopped back up onto my wagon perch and saw that another full-blown battle had broken out behind Narbos’s lines. The force of militia had turned on Narbos. Hundreds of them were trying to hack their way through the protective ring of executioners to get at the overlord. In addition, thousands of conscripts that had been drifting back to the enemy army were also attacking, wildly swinging pitchforks, shovels, and other makeshift weapons at Narbos’s reavers.
“Your contract is turning into a most interesting venture,” Nergui commented as he trotted over to join us, his horse-like body giving him enough height to see over to the enemy camp. The other, shorter members of our meeting also hopped up on the wagons to get a view of the raging battle.
“They’re really going at it, aren’t they, sir? Think they’ll just kill each other off and let us mop up the leftovers?” Wrend asked.
I didn’t answer as we all watched the events unfold. The militia had gotten the drop on the executioners protecting Narbos, their surprise betrayal allowing them to cut down a swath of the overlord’s most powerful warriors before they could react. Darkfallow was also in the fight, raising some dead to protect himself as he fired blasts of necromantic energy into the swarm of attackers. Once the initial shock of the betrayal wore off, the executioners and the nearest reavers gained the upper hand on the outnumbered militia.
The conscripts were poorly trained, but what they lacked in skill and equipment they made up for in ferocity. As the battle progressed, the conscripts’ casualties mounted and they began to waver. It didn’t take long before the conscripts broke and began to flee the field. Some of the reavers pursued before Narbos called them back, trying to form a defensive line in two directions. The majority of his forces lined up to face my legion while a smaller force of reavers maintained a watch on the fleeing conscripts.
The enemy lines were quiet for now. I was glad for the extended reprieve. Each minute Narbos wasted meant my defenses were going to be that much stronger. The men had finished up the defensive stakes while Narbos’s troops had fought among themselves and were now digging a trench line around our position. Given another hour or so, my lines would have a trench, sharpened stakes, and a defensive berm protecting them. With Narbos’s depleted and tired forces, I didn’t think he would be able to crack open a fully prepared legion defensive position.
“Looks like they want to talk, sir,” Brooks said as Narbos, Darkfallow, and a pair of executioners walked from their lines while waving the flag of parley.
“I’ll go out to meet them with Wrend, Stench, and Beremund. Nergui, keep your cavalry ready to charge in if things go south. Captain Landry, you’re in command while I’m gone. Keep the men working,” I ordered. Should something happen to me during our meeting, Landry and Sergeant Brooks should be able to keep the legion together until I respawned.
I wasn’t expecting any treachery, but having a couple of hundred heavy cavalry ready to ride to your rescue was always a plus. We weaved our way through the defensive stakes—small, safe paths were always left between them for the skirmishers to use—and went to meet Narbos and his party between our two armies. The two sides stayed about five feet apart, close enough to talk but outside of melee range, though I suspected Stench could reach the enemy with his enormous arms if he needed to.
“I take it you’re Narbos? I’ve met Darkfallow before, and that meeting didn’t end too well,” I said, still a little angry that Darkfallow had tried to fight me a while back.
“Yes, can’t say that I expected us to meet like this, but as you probably already know, things just took a turn for the worse in both our zones. The Zisilerpicazants are a threat to us all and I was thinking that some kind of peace or at least a cease-fire might be in order,” Narbos said.
“You were the ones to invade our zone. Not to mention, you were also the one that brought Zipp into the mix in the first place,” I replied, selfishly enjoying watching Narbos squirm a bit. We needed a deal as much as Narbos did, but if I could keep the kid on the defensive during our negotiations, I might get something out of it for the zone.
“Hey, I’m just playing the game the way I like. What I don’t like is some NPC imp trying to take over both of our zones. His family already has Ironloch, and I suppose it doesn’t hurt to tell you that he’s taken over all but one of my towns. You might have seen the little skirmish we just had. That was the Bharga’s Crossing zone forces switching allegiance to their new master. Look, I admit Delling and I have a little competition going to beat out the other, but with the new threat, we should work together or at least not against each other,” Narbos argued.
I didn’t know about Ironloch. Perhaps Narbos had some other intel that I wasn’t privy to, something to do with his former alliance with the imp. He was right to a certain extent; by fighting among ourselves, we might just end up handing both zones to Zipp. “What exactly are you offering?” I replied.
“A truce for now. I plan to turn my army around and head back to Bharga’s Crossing to retake the zone there,” Narbos said.
“Not good enough. I don’t know what Zipp has brought into the zone, but you running back to your zone is going to leave me to deal with the problem you helped create. Also, I need some guarantees that you won’t invade again when my army is torn up from killing off the Zisilerpicazant forces,” I added.
“I get you. Let me send you over a list of the forces Zipp brought for the invasion. I don’t know what he used to invade my zone, but if my army returns to Bharga’s Crossing, my forces will tie up a lot of what the imp might otherwise send here. Why don’t we agree to no hostilities between our forces for at least the next thirty days in-game?” Narbos offered.
I paused for a minute to review the information Narbos had sent to me.
Hypogean Forces Initial order of Battle:
Troggs: 3000.
Lurkers: 500.
Deep Gnomes: 200.
Skittering Death: 500.
Tunnel Wurms: 4.
Ikbose Warriors: 200.
Ikbose Painweavers: 10.
Nharia.
Zipp.
“I’m assuming these numbers are what he brought initially and don’t include casualties he may have taken.”
“Correct, I know he lost a hundred lurkers here attacking my forces, and when he turned traitor, I had some executioners and r
aiders in his column. They would have been taken by surprise, but I have to assume that they did some damage. Since he took the city of Bharga, all my zone forces turned to his side. I just have my own troops and the few guards at the town of Haven, which is under my control now. Let me send you the Bharga’s Crossing troops that are now loyal to him.”
Bharga’s Crossing Order of Battle:
Scallywags: 200.
Kobold Miners: 125.
Town Guard: 650.
Militia: 500.
Conscripts: 5000.
“I don’t mind telling you since they’re right in front of you, but I’m down to just under three thousand reavers and two hundred executioners. We wiped out the militia, and half of the conscripts are gone,” Narbos said.
“I think we can work something out. With my garrisons supporting the army, I can take—” I was interrupted by a new notification.
The northern transition point has been captured by the forces of the Zisilerpicazant clan.
“Must be Zipp’s forces coming down from Ironloch,” Narbos said. “Sorry, but I have no idea how much he has there. If I had to guess, it’s likely his sister, Lilly, that’s leading the charge from Ironloch. The two seem to be highly competitive with each other, but they’re also never that far apart, at least from my limited experience.”
“Your army was left here to fight me. Where were Zipp and his army supposed to be marching?” I asked.
“He was supposed to be circling around your force to hit Goreaxe Peak, but that was obviously a lie. Based on the direction he took, I would think that he’s headed toward Holdfast instead,” Narbos advised.
It made sense, especially given the fact that another force had invaded from the north and taken the transition point there. My garrison at the northern transition point was only a reinforced platoon, but with the fortifications in place, the enemy must have had a decent-sized force to take it that quickly. I had to be cautious about the possibility of a third invasion force coming through the southern transition point, but with the sizeable reinforcement of the Stonefinder Lhargen’s dwarves, it would be a tough nut to crack. I needed to get Narbos out of my hair pronto so I could focus on retaking the zone.