by Galen Wolf
‘Want us to come too?’ Henry the Mule asks.
‘I could do with being mounted,’ Bernard says and he goes towards Henry and Henry comes towards him. Tye mounts the other mule, Bessie. My companions don’t look as elegant as I do on Spirit, but they’ll do.
I urge Spirit into a trot and Tye and Bernard follow me. We go by the track the farmers used in more peaceful times and soon we’re about a hundred yards short of the wood. I see the dark shapes of beastmen, maybe twenty or so, then I see I’m wrong and there’s more by far. They’re setting light to the trees and felling them. This looks like a deliberate orgy of destruction. But why concentrate on the forest when the settlement itself is so close. Then I glance back and see the hollowed-out ruins of the farms and I see why. Maybe this raid is coordinated with the dragon’s attack after all?
But I don’t have time to think it out because the beastmen see us and a spear flies through the air. I raise my shield and it thuds into it before falling uselessly to the ground.
Tye stands up in his stirrups and utters some arcane words that send a fireball whooshing through the air that explodes in the trees with a sharp crump. The beastmen scream and more trees catch light, their flame wreathed branches crashing to the ground and adding to the destruction.
‘Good one, eh?’ Tye’s grinning at me.
Bernard shakes his head. ‘Good for killing beastmen. Bad for burning our forest.’
‘Oh, that’s our forest?’
I nod. ‘But the thought was there. Do you have some attack that doesn’t involve fire?’
With desperate concentration, Tye pulls out his dagger and waves it around.
I sigh. ‘Maybe not. Stick to the fire, but just when they come out of the woods okay?’
I see Bernard hurl a flask of light at the beastmen who are nearly invisible through the palls of smoke and the dense mess of burning branches. The flask explodes in a blinding flash.
I shield my eyes. ‘Man, I need sunglasses.’
‘They haven’t been invented yet,’ Bernard says.
‘What — it’s 2027, what do you mean sunglasses haven’t been invented?’
‘In the game, dumbass.’
‘Zip it, you two. This is serious.’ I’m sitting on Spirit. We aren’t going to advance into the choking smoke and the burning undergrowth because that will favour the beastmen. We have to wait until they come out, but that means leaving them to do their work of destroying the forest and the timber resources it provides for us.
That won’t do. I glance over my shoulder and see Uchtred advancing with about twelve halberdiers and eight archers. It really stings to see him rather than Armand. Plus we are heavily outnumbered. This is where tactics come into play.
‘Bernard, go left very wide. Go beyond where the beastmen are and wait just at the forest’s edge.’ I’m looking over to where the dark trees extend away at the edge of the cultivated land. He doesn’t need to go so far, just enough to flank them. ‘And keep a low profile. Don’t draw their attention.’
‘Okay, Gorrow. You’re the brains of the outfit. I’ll do what you say.’ He spurs Henry away. The mule has a goofy smile on his face; he always enjoys combat.
Then I turn to Tye. ‘Same idea for you Tye. Go right. See that barn there at the field’s edge? Go round that then come back so you get a good line of sight along the front of the forest. Don’t fire until they leave the wood’s edge. Don’t burn the forest if you can help it.’
Tye nods. ‘Sure. But how do you know they’ll come out of the forest? I wouldn’t.’
‘You’ll have to trust me on that.’
Tye gives a casual salute and then spurs his mule off to the right. Soon he’s disappeared behind the barn and I see no jets of fire so I think he’s obeying orders.
Then I look behind me. Uchtred is almost level with his few soldiers. He’s pretty inexperienced. ‘What level are you, Uchtred?’
‘Seven, sir.’
It’s not much, but I’ll be giving him tight orders so all he has to do is follow what I say.
‘Right, Uchtred. Listen to me. Form in two ranks.’
‘Two ranks, right.’
‘Halberdiers in front, shields up.’
‘Okay.’
‘Archers behind. Then advance slowly across the ground to the forest. But don’t go into the forest got it? Maintain discipline. Don’t let your guys enter the forest. Do you understand me?’
He nods. He gulps. He’s peering through the smoke. ‘There’s lots of them. I’m not sure…’
‘You have to trust me, Uchtred.’ Seems like I’m saying that a lot today. He nods. He looks like he’s trusting me. Maybe I inspire trust? Who knew?
Spirit shifts slightly under me and whinnies. He’s impatient for the fight. I know I will murder the beastmen if I catch them in the open, but in the wood, they’ll just run away.
I nod at the NPC. ‘Go, Uchtred.’
The new NPC sergeant shouts out his commands. I hear the crunch of boots and see shields lifted as the halberdiers move forward, halberds upright. They take their places at the front and shuffle together to form a shieldwall. The beastmen have seen them because a spear and then another spear fly out from the woods. But the halberdiers are out of range and the spears fall short. Good, just what I wanted. Another command from Uchtred and the archers form up behind the halberdiers, taking cover behind their shields. When they’re in place, Uchtred looks to me. ‘Fire, sir?’
I know the arrows aren’t going to do much against an enemy ensconced in the woods, but this is more about advertising our presence than doing damage. I glance over and see the bulk of the beastmen are still cutting and burning the trees. ‘One volley only,’ I say.
Uchtred nods, barks out the order and I see the bowmen nock their arrows, draw the strings taut and as Uchtred’s hand falls, a wave of arrows shoots through the sky and disappears into the smoke and silhouettes of trees. I see some of the arrows strike the tree trunks, others plash uselessly into the briars but there is at least one grunt of pain. But it’s worked; the beastmen stop their hacking at trees and turn to face us. A few more spears hurtle towards us but land way short. They’re going to have to advance if they want to hit.
Uchtred seems excited that at least one of his arrows hit. He looks bright-eyed in my direction. ‘Forward, sir? We can hit them better if we get closer.’
I shake my head. ‘Easy, sergeant. As you were.’
He can’t help but smile because I’ve called him sergeant, but he’s hellish impatient. Still he waits.
I get a group request from Bernard. I’d forgotten to do this. I add Tye too.
Bernard: What’s up? I’m just waiting here.
Gorrow: It’s going as planned. Just wait.
Bernard: What are you up to?
Gorrow: Trying to draw them out of the wood. You okay there, Tye?
Tye: Yee. Waiting and watching.
Of the two of them I thought it would be Tye who was the impatient one. Just goes to show.
More beastmen spears. They must realise they aren’t going to hit us. They must also know they vastly outnumber the few soldiers we’ve got here. I think about another volley, then decide against it. Seems I’m impatient too.
And then it works. There’s a horrible baying and laughing like a thousand hyenas and the line of beastmen emerges from the woods. They’re a rag-tag of different hybrids. Some are fox-men, some are actually hyena-men, there’s the odd wolf, a huge bear thing and on the left side even a tiger-hybrid. Their leader has a brown bear’s body and a wild boar’s head, complete with tusks and piggy eyes. They’re in a mish-mash of armour. Some have pieces of plate strapped to their chests with leather bands, others are wearing studded leather, still others have fish-scale style hauberks. Doesn’t matter what armour they’re wearing. They’re all going to die. They have to. None can survive to take news of the Secret Valley back to the Evil One or his servants.
They shake their spears and swords and brandish their shields, then with a hooting
and barking, they run.
There are lots of them, more than I thought, but really what idiots. Spirit smells them and tosses his head. My lance is in my hand. My halberdiers stand ready.
The beastmen are crossing the ground rapidly. I feel Uchtred’s agitation. He wants his archers to shoot, but awaits my order.
Gorrow: Bernie, time for some smoke and lights?
Bernard: You got it.
Flasks of liquid smoke from the alchemist arch through the air, carrying supernaturally far and being thrown supernaturally fast. One, two, three of them land and smash in front of the sprinting beastmen’s line. Thick, sudden walls of white smoke rise up like a curtain and the beastmen disappear. Then three flasks of light sail through the air and explode into the smoke. The brightness of the flashes is obscured by the smoke but I can tell from the shrieks and grunts that Bernard’s light bombs struck home. It’s like watching strobe lights in a disco.
Tye: I can’t see to fire!
Gorrow: Shoot into the smoke. Go crazy with your fireballs.
Tye: Going crazy.
And then from the right side come incandescent balls of flame, ploughing into the thick smoke with a series of whamming sounds. Tye’s firing like a grenade launcher and I can smell the stink of cooking beastmen from here. We’ve killed lots of them. I see my XP clicking up by a little each time one dies because I’m in a party with Tye and Bernard who are doing the killing.
And so on. I must have got 600 XP from this already.
Then they break out from the smoke. Tye switches to Flaming Rays. He’s standing away from the barn now so he can get a better shot. He’s burning them down, picking them off one by one. I guess Flaming Ray uses less mana than Fireball and he’s conserving his power.
I glance at the halberdiers, who are looking nervous as the huge monstrous things cross the ground towards them. ‘Brace for contact,’ I say to Uchtred.
Uchtred repeats the order and the halberdiers pull their shields tighter and level their halberds. ‘Give them some volleys, Uchtred. As many as you can get in.’
Uchtred nods and a sheet of arrows flies up from behind the halberdiers. The arrows spike into the beastmen like so many porcupine spines and they stumble and fall. But there are at least twenty of them left. More than us. And they’re enraged. They hate that we’re beating them.
Then they crunch into our front line. Spirit is impatient now. I tug his head gently left and he trots round. I want a good run up. My halberdiers are holding, but the beastmen are better fighters one on one. I see a halberdier go down then another. We don’t have lots of soldiers to waste.
But now I’m wide enough. I couch my spear, put down my visor and yell my battle cry, ‘For my God and King!’
I squeeze my knees and Spirit breaks into a gallop. His hoofs pound the ground underneath. The lance is level. I’m aiming for the big one, the leader. He turns as he sees the horse charging, and pulls up his shield. He’s taller than we are man and horse combined and he’s carrying a vicious looking chopper thing, a cross between a butcher’s axe and a machete. His boar eyes blink and he snarls and starts running towards me. Maybe he thinks he has a chance. But I’m Sir Gorrow of the Bloody Field, and this is my village.
We crash into him, the tip of my crystal lance skewering him like a kebab.
And then I’m among them, I put up my lance and drag out my sword. It’s wreathed in magic fire of different colours from all the enhancements on it. Bernard’s silver bleed rune glitters on the flat of the blade as I hack down at a beastman. I sense rather than see that Bernard and Tye have joined the fight. Bernard has his alchemical sword out, decorated with far more runes than I have on mine. He slays a beastman. Tye fires another Flaming Ray and my halberdiers press forward.
Sensing they are surrounded, the beastmen quail and their morale wavers before breaking all together. They turn and run. Bernard follows them, but I don’t. I nod at Uchtred. ‘Shoot them down.’
Our green feathered arrows speed through the air and smack into the backs of the fleeing beastmen. I watch as they trip and die. Not one of them makes it back to the wood.
I say to Uchtred. ‘Your promotion’s made permanent, sergeant. When you’re done out here, come and see me in my chambers in the Mine with a situation report on the damage. Get Jason to help you with that.’
I picked up another 390xp from slaughtering the beastmen. Tye and Bernard join me as we survey what the beastmen and dragon have done to our valley.
‘What a mess,’ Bernard says, sighing.
‘But none of them got out.’ Tye’s not smiling, but he looks satisfied with that result. It’s partly down to him too.
‘We will recover,’ I say. ‘But in the meantime, we need to work out what those smoky quartz crystals do.’
‘I’m on it,’ Bernard says. ‘Just need a bit more time.’
Tye’s still taking stock of what we’ve lost. ‘So in the meantime, we just rebuild and carry on as normal?’
‘Sort of,’ I say. ‘But it’s time for our guys down south to know we’re here. I’m going to contact Sir Lancelot. I haven’t posted on the Round Table Guild board since Camelot burned. I didn’t want any spies to read the board and so give the game away.’
‘But now the game’s given away anyway…’ Bernard says.
‘Partly. But we still have time. We still have hope.’
Tye grins, but I can tell Bernard’s not so sure.
Level Two
When I next log on, I take stock of my Levels and skills. I’m Level 13 with my XP standing at 34005 after the skirmish with the beastmen. That means I need 2995 XP for Level 14. With my Reinforced Meteoric Iron Armour plus the various holy bonuses and bonuses from being a knight, my base armour is 8320 when mounted. That is much higher than others at Level 13, because of the effort I put into developing my Smithing skills so I could improve my own armour. I’ve lagged behind in Swordplay so I miss more often than people my level, but when I hit, from mounted, with my sword, I do 2560 damage without a crit. When I do crit I can potentially hit for 7680. I’m deadly and that’s a fact.
I consider the state of Silver Drift next:
Military
Eagles 12
Light Archers: 14
Yeomen Halberdiers: 16
Not Counted in Population
Civilians
Farmers: Adults, 18; Children 12
Villagers (undeployed: 24)
Friars: 4
Miners: Adults 35, Children 18
Key NPCs: 8
Silver Drift Population: 119
We would have had more if the dragon hadn’t killed some. I’m also concerned about the undeployed civilians. They could become soldiers or skilled workers such as millers, bakers, carpenters etc. I need to think how to deploy them. I should discuss it with Jason my Elf Brewer and Business manager
I start to think about what skills I’m going to buy when I get to Level 14. There are lots of calls on my skills, but I think for offence, Swordplay is the best bet to increase my critical hit chance and critical hit multiplier, and for defence, I need to think about Shieldwork to increase my chance of blocking enemy attacks with my shield from the current 20%.
I’m musing this about this when there’s a knock on the rough wooden door. From the quiet chronic coughing, due no doubt to breathing noxious fumes in his alchemist’s laboratory, I realise it’s Bernard.
‘Come in, Bernie. How’s it hanging?’
He pulls his wispy beard and looks at me with his nut brown eyes. He’s as dishevelled as normal and has porridge stains on his brown smock as well as a large purple stain on his breast. He sees me looking. ‘Potassium permanganate,’ he says.
I ask no more.
Because the connecting corridor is via Level One and leads into the Tapestry Room we have to go through Level One and past all the fire traps and fire mobs, which because there are no adventurers currently in the dungeon, sit quiet and untriggered in their spots. I’m walking with Bernard who’s talking ten to the dozen. ‘Gorrow, you’re really going to love some of the traps that Peter has designed for me. They’re really classy, and I was speaking to Asterix and we’ve ordered some great mobs. I used the joint bank account for the dungeon, I hope you’re okay with that?’ He looks at me, an anxious frown furrowing his brow as if I might be mad at him.
I wave away his concern. ‘Don’t worry. As long as you don’t bankrupt us, I see it as an investment.’
We walk through the corridors and passages, down the slope into the Gas Room then up through the Fire Dwarf area. The dwarf mobs stand eerily still and quiet, waiting for the entrance of an adventurer to trigger them. Tye’s not around as we go through his luxurious Fire Mage chamber where the boss fight takes place. I see the chest with the loot on the back wall. It only unlocks if they kill him, which they do sometimes, but mostly not.
Bernard’s mopping his brow with the red and white spotted handkerchief he uses as a mask when we go out raiding.
‘Hot,’ I say.
‘All that fire. Phew.’
I nod and our feet echo as we descend the stone cut stairs to Level Two of the dungeon. As we turn the corner the NPC rogue, Peter, is standing rubbing his hands. He’s a halfling rogue and our trap-smith. They call him ‘The Silent’ but in fact I think that’s just cover for the fact that he’s a psycho. I hate to imagine what goes on in his head as he stands there quietly watching everyone. Still, he’s our psycho. He bows. ‘Sir Gorrow, sir. Pleased to see you well.’