by Kevin Culp
“What we do now?”
That was a good question. Truthfully, since this creature could cast Murder, I needed to be the only one that actually fought whatever this thing was. Also, we had six days to prepare and there were still tons of slaves in this mountain. I didn’t want to make Christina, Phillip, and Korana come all this way, only to ask them to sit on the sidelines for the real battle, but it seemed it might come to that. Either way, we needed to take care of these slaves.
Kreego had found a substantial stash of some kind of drug in a cabinet next to the King’s bed, which he had put away. I wasn’t sure what it was, but these women weren’t recovering very quickly. Even if I had my Healing Hands available, I could stop poisons including most drugs, but I couldn’t reverse any current effects. The women that had been in the cages were somewhat functional though terrified. The women on the bed though, I was just hoping would be cognitive at the very least by the following day.
I still needed to heal myself and Kreego. We were badly injured, but some of my healing would definitely have to go to these slaves the following day. I just wished I had saved a bit of it for them now rather than using it all on Zeus.
“How far south is Bornur?” I asked.
Kreego scratched his head. “Two day Kreego think.”
“Do you think we could get all the slaves to Bornur and be back here in time if we left tomorrow?”
“Probably, but little time left if do that.”
Sarah raised her hand and strangely reminded me of Christina when she did.
“Yes, Sarah?”
“We could ask the other goblins to help. I know that King Leonard is awful and many of his men and soldiers are the same, but not all. Most of the mothers are just like human mothers. They want their children to be safe and don’t really care for war. Part of the problem is that it is a very male dominant society, but if they sent out their armies, it’s probably mostly women and children here now.”
“I don’t like the idea of scaring women and children, but if we can do it in a diplomatic way, I wouldn’t be opposed to this. Asking people who have slaves to watch after the slaves we have freed especially when we are aiming to free them all seems like a stretch though.”
“I think it’s worth trying.” She said.
“Maybe we should try to find Turny. Kreego, are you familiar with a young goblin named Turny?”
“Kreego not know.”
“Kreego and I are both exceptionally injured. I think for now we should close and guard the door and wait for tomorrow. I don’t think it’s likely that there are many if any out there that can injure us, but it wouldn’t take much, and I have no healing if something happens.”
Everyone seemed to agree with that. Kreego moved on to try hitting on Korana but was quickly shut down. That being said, they did share a conversation about what it’s like to be run out of human settlements. Korana spent most of her life not fitting in and people would get scared by random magic that sometimes happened around her. John hadn’t been in Kreego’s body for long, and the game we played in seemed to accept goblins a little better than this world, but to be so blatantly shunned since he arrived would be depressing.
Christina began catching up with her mom. She left out everything about her and Joseph’s falling out. I was honestly sitting there hoping that Mary wouldn’t feel the need to fill her in once we got back to the village. Eventually, she got to telling her mom about how I showed up in town giving all the details of me acting strange and being confused at first. She went on however to tell the story of how I put a stop to Baron Lyndmire, brought someone back from the dead, fought a giant lion, and became a Knight of the Varnelion Kingdom as well as a Baron with Freid as my only current territory.
She also told her mom all about the orc attack and how her dad had died. She was crying, but she spoke in a very proud tone. Her father had been brave at the end, and that was something that Christina had admired many times. She told her of us having found Joseph and the others dead after the attack and of the recent developments in Freid.
While Christina was telling her mom this story and Kreego was talking to Korana, I took the time to pull up Christina’s character sheet. I was amazed at the amount of experience she had gained. I still wasn’t certain if she had gotten a small amount of experience for each of the enormous number of goblins that had been killed in the entrance or if she had gotten an exceptional amount of experience from her fight with the King. Korana had taken out dozens of goblins with her breath attack. Christina may have gotten some experience for being a part of the party like it worked in the game, but I couldn’t say for sure. Either way, she was now level 3 and at 14/400 experience. Her attributes had changed slightly. In the game, she should have gotten a +1 to two of them at level 3, and this seemed to be the same.
Her new attributes were:
Strength-8
Constitution-10
Finesse-16
Intellect-14
Wisdom-15
Charisma-20
If my memory served correctly, her Constitution score was previously 9, and her Charisma was 19. I wasn’t certain that she would realize this, but it was always best to increase odd attributes first because the modifiers only changed at even numbers. A Charisma score of 20 was amazing at her level and having a 10 in Constitution meant she wouldn’t have a penalty to her hit points which was important for a melee fighter no matter how high your Armor Rating was.
Her hit points had gone to 9 after gaining her first level and now she was at 26. I had assumed that her Hit Dice was a D10, which meant that she had rolled pretty well for hit points so far. Her movement had gone up as well. Previously, her movement had been 30ft per round, which was pretty normal. Now it was 40ft per round. That must have been an effect from her Blade Dancer class. Not a lot of classes increased movement, but it was obvious hers was supposed to be about agility which often incorporated mobility.
One other thing stuck out. It was an ability called Dance of the Slicing Winds. I focused on it, and a description came up.
Dance of the Slicing Winds – This character may make a move action as part of a full attack action. When doing so, they may make each attack at any point during their movement, but iterative attacks with each weapon must be done in order of highest attack bonus to lowest.
That was a pretty awesome ability that I had never seen before, though I had never seen the Blade Dancer class in general, so I guess that made sense. Normally, you could only take one attack in a turn you moved, which was especially annoying for a dual wielder that depended on several small attacks. This would let her move around the battlefield and attack as she saw fit. She didn’t have iterative attacks yet, but I imagined it would be even more useful then.
There were only a few other changes I saw aside from those and most were kind of obvious. Her ranks in Acrobatics, Dancing, Riding, and Animal Handling, as well as her attack bonuses and saves, had gone up with her level. Overall, I was definitely happy with the improvement. She got a useful new ability, she had hit points that made me not have to worry as much every time she got scratched, and with her skill and attack increases, she would be overall better in combat. Her Charisma going up meant that her Armor Rating had gone up by 1 as well.
I wasn’t sure how long I was looking at the sheet, but a substantial amount of time had definitely passed. Just after I had stopped focusing on Christina’s character sheet, I heard something in the conversation between Christina and her mother that made me wish I had stayed lost in my own little world for a while longer.
“So, should I be expecting grandchildren from you and Archaeus soon?”
Chapter 17
I think I had about died when Christina’s mother asked her about grandchildren and so did Christina. Kreego overheard it and started laughing. Truthfully, it didn’t surprise me. This was a different society where a nineteen-year-old like Christina having two or three kids by now was common. Overall though, I think Sarah was more trying to keep the m
ood light and needed to catch up on five years of not teasing her daughter.
“Mother!” Christina had said with surprise.
“Well, you’re still relatively young, and you have the eye of a noble that actually seems to love you. I think having some kids as soon as possible would be ideal.”
Christina blushed horribly and was probably momentarily happy that her mom couldn’t see her face. Part of me was laughing, but the other part was sharing in the embarrassment. About that time though the big set of doors to the throne room began to open. Myself, Kreego, Christina, Phillip, Korana, and Zeus all jumped to the ready with our weapons. As the door opened, however, it turned out to be five little old goblin women carrying a few large wineskins. They noticed us holding weapons, and their eyes went wide, but they didn’t run.
The nearest one spoke in what I’d call broken English, but so far the only goblin that hadn’t spoken in what I’d consider a broken language was the king. “We feed babies?”
I waved them in. “Of course.”
They walked slowly and cautiously into the room.
“I should go with them.” Christina’s mother said.
“But, Mom. Caring for those kids isn’t your responsibility anymore.”
“They are still just infants, and I am charged with their well-being.” She said.
I felt like there was a bit more to it than that, but didn’t bring this up. She got up. One of the goblin ladies took her hand, and they walked into the King’s room. I heard the King’s muffled screams as they opened the door, but they disappeared again as the door closed.
The rest of the day we spent trying to come up with a plan. We had hoped that the goblins would house the slaves that were down here during the fight. It probably wouldn’t matter much unless the fight somehow came into the mountain which we would be trying to avoid at all costs. According to Kreego, this being could see him even when he was invisible within a reasonable distance. He had agreed that I really needed to be the one to fight the demon. One spell could potentially kill Kreego much easier than it could me, and that was a risk we didn’t want to take.
It wasn’t that he was afraid, it was just the obvious option. When we were fighting against something that could kill in an instant, anyone who was susceptible was a liability. I hated to think that way, but it was the truth. That really meant that I needed to find something for Christina, Phillip, and Korana to do during the battle, but the idea of Christina fighting without me present scared me.
As of right now, my plan was to challenge this creature to a duel and hope he would accept. Kreego was going to stay invisible off in the distance and if the duel wasn’t accepted, he would start killing off the men outside the demon’s vision and maybe lower their morale. According to Kreego, goblins aren’t like the orcs that thought it was worth it to try to kill me once I had killed the most powerful among them. They were likely to submit to me once the creature was dead.
I still didn’t know what it was or even have a name to call it. Kreego seemed to just think all men looked the same. He kept confusing me and Phillip. He said he could tell me apart due to my breastplate, but he kept expecting me to take it off since we weren’t fighting. I was definitely worried about what would happen if I lost this fight.
Sarah spent most of her day in the nursery. Christina went to talk to her a few times but said that she didn’t feel comfortable in that room. Her mom got around that room pretty well for a blind woman, but that didn’t mean that she was comfortable leaving the room on her own.
We took watches when we slept that night, but the only disturbance was when the old women came back again to feed the children. We hadn’t had any problems with the women and they even seemed content ignoring the King. I had considered the possibility they were spying on us, but Sarah seemed to think it was normal, and I wanted to trust her even after all she had been through.
The following morning I woke up and prepared my spells like normal. I prepared a few uses of basic restoration just in case it would help and several healing spells. The women from the bed had seemed to be getting a little more aware, but they also had horrible headaches, were sweating bad, and starting to shake. If I had to guess, I’d say they were going through withdrawals. The women from the cages also had some of these symptoms from the beginning, but it was slight, so I had just thought they were cold. I couldn’t help but wonder if Christina’s mom had gone through the same thing. It surprised me that the women that were pregnant were going through the same drug-induced symptoms as the rest. I would think he would want to keep those carrying his children healthy, but maybe he didn’t understand that concept.
The men were the ones I knew that healing spells should be able to help the most, so I started with them. I started with the elf, then healed the humans, and the dwarf last. I used Cure II on each of them and it seemed to close pretty much all of their wounds. Two of the humans didn’t wake when I healed them, but they certainly looked more comfortable.
The elf’s name was Ehlronis, and he had apparently come from an elven village that was wiped out a long time ago in the south of the Largon Empire. The village had been destroyed during the human expansion, and he was taken as a prisoner of war and had been a slave since. Apparently, just six months ago he had been brought here and dumped off in a similar manner to Sarah.
The human was apparently a woodcutter that was a permanent resident of the town of Renero where we had visited just days before. He was apparently captured towards the end of the last cutting season. He had no family but had a house in the woods south of town. That being said, he thought they would have noticed him missing but with how much of a recluse he was, he doubted that anyone tried very hard to find him.
The Dwarf’s story is what really caught my interest. They all looked old, but he was exceptionally old. His hair was pure white, and he was covered in wrinkles. While he had the stocky structure I expected of a dwarf, his muscles were almost all deteriorated into non-existence. When I healed him, his eyes opened slowly and questioningly.
“Ahh. Death has come for me at last. I have long since awaited this day.” His voice was strained but somehow peaceful.
“I am neither death, nor am I a being of the afterlife. You are still of this world.”
“That’s too bad. I guess I’m just hallucinating.”
“Why do you assume this is a hallucination?” I asked.
“There is no pain, so it must be.”
“The pain is gone because I have freed you from your shackles and healed your wounds.”
“So, this is some kind of trick from the cruel goblins to make my last round of torture far worse.”
He said it as if it was an indisputable fact. I wasn’t sure if I could even convince him that this wasn’t a hallucination or something to prep him for more torture. I’m guessing this old dwarf had been here for a long time.
“I assure you that we mean no harm, though I understand your trust may be difficult to gain. For now, can I ask if you will tell me your name and how you came to be here?”
“I suppose I have nothing to lose either way. My name is Oegim Veldun, and I was born in this mountain a long time ago. My father was the Last King of Stone, Dovurn Vugnim Veldun. I was a young man, only fifty-two years old and about to marry when the goblins invaded. They killed my father and took me prisoner. They have tortured me for many years but always aimed to keep me alive.”
“That is awful. Can I ask how long you were here, Sir Veldun?”
“You can cut the Sir crap. Just call me Oegim. I’ve not been nobility for a long time. I’d say I’ve been here for at least a few hundred years, but it’s hard to tell with nothing but days of constant torture. We dwarves have strong fortitudes and minds. It is the only reason I have not descended into madness over these many long years.”
I couldn’t imagine not having been driven insane over hundreds of years of torture. Going insane would most certainly make it easier. To an extent, it was hard to believe, but then again,
this was obviously a dwarven city once, and even Gregory’s map hadn’t labeled it as such. It would have had to be a very long time ago.
“You can rest easy for now, Oegim.”
It didn’t take much. He closed his eyes again and seemed to be asleep. He definitely seemed much more comfortable than he was before. To think he was hundreds of years old and had spent most of that time here was just bizarre. Dwarves could live to be 450 to 550 years old from my understanding, and it appeared this one was likely nearing that point. To have done so with a life full of torture, however, just made it a tragedy.
I looked around at the slaves that were still unconscious and even those that were conscious clearly would be better off asleep. I needed to get them a better place to rest than this stone floor. Several of them were on our bedrolls, but we didn’t have enough for all of them.
“Hey, Kreego, come with me for a bit if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing, big chief.”
“Do you want me to come with you too?” Christina asked.
“Not at the moment. I think it’s best to just keep it to me and Kreego for this. It’s probably too late, but I’d like to not be too intimidating while speaking to the goblins.”
Christina nodded and then came to give me a kiss. “Be safe, okay.”
I nodded to her, and Kreego and I exited through the stone doors.
“Kreego jealous of, Archaeus.”
I looked down at him. “Oh, why is that, Kreego?”
“Christina pretty girl.”
It was kind of strange to hear my gay friend talk about being jealous of my pretty girlfriend. It was hard to tell if he was saying this as Kreego or more just saying it as him, but referencing that I could be with someone that I actually wanted. I had hoped that once we were together, we could actually talk as ourselves. Part of it made me worry that John wasn’t really in there, but I still felt he was based on our initial conversation.