by Jamie Davis
Skills: Shield Bash - 2, One-Handed Combat - 3, Combat Misdirection - 1, Prescience - 1, Chakra regeneration - 3 (18hp during combat; 1/day), Riposte - 2
Weapon Proficiencies: Long sword - 4, Crossbow - 1
Warrior Experience: 39,000/76,800
Rogue Experience: 146,100/250,000
Several weeks after escaping the city, the group who’d become the leadership team for the slave army assembled for one of their now regular evening meetings. They were inside one of the dozens of hastily constructed log huts sheltering them in the forest.
Hal always waited to see if anyone wanted to start talking first. Everyone deferred to Hal, however, and he soon discovered the others had met without him and he’d been selected as the leader of this impromptu slave rebellion. While the idea for the escape had been his, Hal had hoped someone with more experience would step forward to take the reins once they were out of the city. That hope faded with the vote for him to lead the group and that meant he kicked off the meetings.
“Who’s got the first report?”
“Hal, I’ll go,” Junica said.
“Uh, sure. Take it away.”
“We need more help gathering food and other supplies for the army,” Junica said. “Churg and I have been sending out mixed hunting parties of humans, goblins and orcs. We found a few slaves who have experience in wilderness environments to come along, but even with that extra help, it is getting harder to find game close by. We have been roving farther and farther away from the central camp to find food and we’re starting to run short of rations between the times the hunting parties return.”
Churg leaned forward on his camp stool. “I have sent to my tribe and to the goblins of the Valley of the Sun for assistance. I am confident when they hear of our escape and the way you assisted us they will send warriors and hunters to help with our cause. It is my hope the same is true of the northern orc and hill giant tribes.”
“Hal,” Otto interrupted. “What exactly is our ‘cause’, as Churg puts it?”
“Initially,” Hal said. “I thought everyone we freed would return home to their villages, tribes, and farms. It turns out most of them don’t have anything to go home to. The Emperor’s armies destroyed everything they had when they were enslaved. They have nowhere to go but stay here with us.”
“Well, I can’t believe Baron Norak and the Wardens in Hyroth haven’t sent an army out to look for us and bring the slaves back for trial and execution,” Otto continued. “It can’t set a good example for them to lose half the slaves in the city to an armed rebellion and mass escape. If we stay together in one place, we have to be prepared to defend ourselves. Have you thought about that?”
“I have,” Hal said. “Kay sent word to the Duke in Tandon to see if they could lend us any aid. We don’t have enough weapons to go around, not even close. I’m hoping he will be able to remedy that.”
“How long is that going to take?” Otto asked.
“I have reason to believe the Duke has been preparing for a rebellion in this region for some time. He may have even already set up forward supply depots, hidden somewhere in the region, knowing him,” Kay replied. “In any case, I expect to hear back from my contact within a few days.”
“If Kay is able to remedy our weapons shortages, we will have to train these slaves to be soldiers. That leads us to the next question,” Hal met the eyes of his gathered leaders. “Can it be done?”
Everyone looked around, searching for someone else to have the answer. After a long awkward pause, Rune nodded.
“It can be done,” the monk affirmed. “Between Otto and some of the other gladiators, we should be able to put a training cadre together and start with rudimentary defense and attack formations. In fact, we can start training with stand-in weapons since initially we are just training them to stay together in formation in preparation for fighting together.”
“Good, I was hoping that would be the case,” Hal said. “Start there. We can use sticks and poles cut from trees instead of swords and spears to get them started. Go ahead and train them, Rune. Use whatever resources you need. I think it’s going to be important sooner than we think.”
A rap at the door to the cabin broke the conversation and a clerk with the shaved head of a temple slave stuck his head around the cloth curtain that served as a door.
“Excuse me, General. Someone is here who claims to know you. He says commander Kay sent for him.”
Hal looked at Kay and she shrugged.
“Send them in,” Hal said. “And stop calling me ‘General.’”
“Yes, sir,” the clerk said. “Here’s your visitor.”
The clerk ducked back out and pulled the curtain aside to allow for the new arrival to pass through the door. Hal recognized him right away.
“Hello, youngling,” Bilham Gary said. “Ghent said you sent west for some help. He sent me with information on the location of eighteen wagon loads of weapons and armor, all stashed nearby, courtesy of the Imperial Army supply corps.”
“Bilham,” Hal exclaimed. “I never expected to see you showing up here.”
“I hate the slave trade, boy. When I heard of what you did after your capture and how you escaped with everyone around you, I asked Ghent to send me along to help with training your recruits.”
“I’ll not turn down your help.” Hal turned to the rest of his team. “This is Bilham Gary, the guard captain of the caravan I traveled with to get to Hyroth. He’s an excellent person to help train our forces. Rune, you and Otto should coordinate with him on training and equipping the former slaves who are going to make up our army.”
“We can do that,” Otto said. “I look forward to seeing what he can teach us.”
“In the meantime, Bilham,” Hal said. “Tell me more about where these wagonloads of weapons are.”
Quest accepted — Liberate the supply wagons
The darkness enveloped the small group in the shadows, for which Hal was glad. He scanned the area ahead with care, watching for signs of the guards he knew had to be there. The supply wagons bound for Baron Norak’s army on the outskirts of Hyroth were exactly where Bilham said they’d be. Now all they had to do was capture them and take them back to their camp in the hills.
After about a minute, Hal spotted movement in the trees near the encampment. He pointed and Junica, kneeling to his left nodded.
The archer raised her bow, nocking an arrow and drawing the string back in a single, smooth motion. She tracked the movement in the shadows for a few heartbeats and then let fly. Two more arrows followed after the first before it struck home, taking the guard in the chest and knocking him backward into a tree where the follow-up arrows pinned his dead body to the trunk.
The guard looked like he was leaning against the tree, resting. Hal shook his head. Junica’s skill with that bow was uncanny.
Hal turned to the others in his group.
“Remember the plan,” he whispered. “We sweep around the camp, taking out the guards before we rouse the drivers and make them help us drive the wagons westward. According to Bilham, the drivers were all pressed into service and are little more than slaves themselves.”
Hal waited until the small group nodded before he continued.
“Kay, Junica, and Churg will come with me and circle left. Otto and Rune, you take the others and circle right. We’ll finish off the small detachment of guards and then rush the guards inside.”
Otto grinned, a broad white smile splitting his dark-skinned face in the night.
“Last group to complete their sweep and attack guards inside buys the others a round of drinks at the next tavern we visit.”
“Done,” Churg answered in his accented goblin voice.
“Let’s go.” Hal gestured left and right and the two groups of gladiators split off to finish their night’s work.
Hal moved forward with Kay on his left, Churg on his right, and Junica bringing up the rear.
A form rose up out of the darkness, challenging Hal. A
nother guard loomed nearby the first.
Rushing forward, Hal swept his sword out in a slashing attack at the guard’s neck. The man managed to bring his shield up in time to fend off the blow and strike back at Hal with his ball and chain morningstar.
Hal raised his own shield, catching the descent of the spiked ball at the end of the chain. He ducked his head to avoid the spiked ball as it wrapped over the top of his shield.
Churg rushed past Hal and his opponent to take on the other nearby guard. Hal heard shouts from the far side of the camp and knew that Otto’s group had met resistance as well.
So much for taking the guards in silence.
Returning his attention to the fight at hand, Hal lunged under the overhead attack from the morningstar and tried to take the guard in the groin with his sword point.
Hal was rewarded with a high-pitched scream from his opponent who doubled over clutching his mangled privates.
A final stab downward put the man out of his misery.
1,000 experience points awarded.
Churg had finished off his guard by the time Hal was done fighting.
Junica stood behind Hal, firing her arrows into the camp at the rest of the guard company, rising from their bedrolls there.
Kay had run forward and attacked another perimeter guard who’d run up from the darkness.
Two guards charged from the camp at Junica while she was freeing another bundle of arrows from her quiver.
Hal ran to her aid.
He raised his shield and braced his arm as the first attacker swung his battle axe downward. With the sword in his right hand he parried the second guard’s sword attack.
The descending axe blow shook Hal’s entire left side, but the shield held and Hal used the guard’s momentum against him.
Setting his shoulder against the shield, Hal lunged and bashed outward with the shield’s metal rim. A rewarding crunch reverberated up Hal’s arm as the shield impacted the axe-wielder’s face, breaking his nose and knocking out several teeth.
The second guard thought he saw an opening in Hal’s defenses, but with another parry and riposte attack, Hal managed to drive him backward and scored a glancing slash on the man’s sword arm.
With both his opponents wounded, Hal drove forward, taking the attack to each of them.
The guard with the axe, his face a bloody ruin from the shield bash, tried to swing at Hal’s knees.
Hal leapt over the attack and drove his sword through the man’s defenses, taking him in the neck.
A gurgling cry sounded and the man collapsed to the ground.
1,000 experience points awarded.
Turning to the final guard, Hal barely fended off a lunging sword attack aimed at his back. The tip of the blade still scored a line of fire on his side.
Health damage: Health -8
More guards were charging forward from the camp and Hal knew he needed to finish off this guard quickly before he was overwhelmed.
He swung a series of attacks from multiple directions at his opponent, each stroke scoring another light hit. He was unable to get in a killing blow. The guard was holding his own.
Other guards arrived from the center of the camp but Churg and Kay were now beside him and they took on the newcomers racing out in defense of their camp.
Hal finally saw his opportunity when the guard over-compensated for a roundhouse swing at Hal’s head.
Hal ducked under the sword and hacked at the man’s exposed knee. The leg crumpled under the blow and the follow up lunge finished the guard off as he fell to the ground.
1,000 experience points awarded.
Junica’s bowstring was sounding again now, a regular twanging hum behind him. Hal saw more advancing guards dropped in their tracks with arrows jutting from their chests.
Kay and Churg were engaged with their own battles and Hal charged forward to take on a guard officer barking orders to the remaining guards, coordinating the defense of the wagons.
The man took on a defensive stance as Hal ran at him. His blade was longer and lighter than Hal’s and it moved with lighting speed once Hal was in range.
The quickness of the attacks caught Hal by surprise and he yelled out in pain as two rapid thrusts struck home before he could respond to them.
Health damage: Health -8
Health damage: Health -10
The guard officer sneered when his attacks landed and he continued his flurry of attacks, driving Hal back on his heels in defense.
He managed to parry the next few attacks but another lunge from the officer snaked past his shield and jabbed painfully into his shoulder.
Health damage: Health -8
Hal decided to try something new and punched forward with the metal boss in the center of his shield. The officer jumped back out of the way and Hal took advantage of the break in the attacks to sweep his sword at the man’s exposed ankles.
It worked.
The sword blade bit deep and knocked the officer from his feet, taking his legs out from under him.
The man’s eyes went wide as he fell. Hal’s backhand return strike hacked into the man’s sword arm. The officer’s blade fell to the hard, rocky ground with a clatter.
Hal’s final lunge into his throat finished off the officer.
4,000 experience points awarded.
The fighting in the center of the camp had died down. The remaining guards dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender.
“Tie them up,” Hal ordered. “We’ll take them with us for now until we decide what to do with them.”
Otto and the others moved in to take the few remaining guards into custody while Hal turned to the cowering wagon drivers clustered together in the center of the camp.
“You have nothing to fear from us. We are here to fight against the Emperor’s oppression. Help us hitch up the wagons and come with us. We will help you free your villages and towns in this region.”
The drivers relaxed when they heard his statement. A few of them started towards the picketed wagon teams and began bringing the horses over to hitch to the wagons.
Soon all the drivers were pitching in and it wasn’t long before all the wagons were ready to travel. The captured guards were lined up, tied together by a length of rope. They were ready to march behind the wagons once they set out.
“Is everything ready?” Hal asked Kay.
“Yes, we have all the wagons ready to go. Our few wounded are loaded on the wagons and they should all survive.”
“Good,” Hal said. “Let’s load up and get these wagons headed back to our camp before an Imperial patrol stumbles upon us and realizes who we are and what we’ve done.”
He climbed up on the leading wagon and nodded to the driver. His whip snaked out with a resounding crack and the team of horses leaned into their harnesses, pulling the wagon to a lurching start. They were on their way back to the army of freed slaves with the weapons and equipment needed to turn them into soldiers.
Quest completed — Liberate the supply wagons
8,000 experience awarded.
26
Bilham, Otto, and Rune began distributing the captured weapons and equipment the day after they returned to the rebel encampment. The former slaves laughed and took practice swings with their new swords and axes while others tried to don the unfamiliar leather armor and breast plates in the proper fashion.
Hal let them have their momentary fun while it lasted. He knew there was much more to wielding those weapons than waving them around against imaginary opponents.
Bilham and the others had a lot of work to do. These armed slaves were a long way from disciplined soldiers who would stand in a pitched battle.
Hal hoped they had the time to whip them into shape before Norak’s army found the escaped slaves and moved to engage them.
“They’re going to cut their own feet off,” Kay snorted in disgust from beside Hal.
“Bilham and the others will make sure no one goes that far,” Hal laughed. “S
ee, Bilham is starting to organize them into their companies and get them into battle lines. Don’t worry, he’s got the experience to pull this disorganized lot together.”
“I hope you’re right, Hal. I’ve trusted you in the past but even your uncanny luck is going to be tested with this lot. What are we going to do with them once we teach them which end of the sword to hold and how to put on their armor?”
“We are going to liberate the city of Hyroth from Norak and the Emperor’s Wardens. I have a debt to pay back to that weasel Flemming Ginty for throwing both of us into the arena to die.”
“Wait, you’re serious?” Kay asked. “You think this rabble can be trained in a few days or weeks to stand up to an Imperial army under Norak’s leadership, even a newly formed one? He’s the Emperor’s best officer. You know he leads the strikes searching for the remaining rogue mages.”
“In the end, he’s just a man, like any other,” Hal said. “He’ll find it hard to lead an army with my sword through his chest.”
“Those are bold words, Hal. He’s a blade master. You’re good with a sword but he’s renowned across the Empire for his skill. Besides, if you want to get to Norak, first you have to break his army. I’m not sure you can do that with just these armed slaves.”
Hal shook his head.
“All I can say, Kay, is to have faith. If we can manage to avoid a major confrontation for a few weeks, we can turn these former slaves into soldiers. I believe it.”
Kay fell silent while the scene unfolded by the supply wagons. Bilham, along with Otto, and the other gladiators assigned to help train the recruits, started showing their charges how to hold their weapons and drilling them how to march in line together.
Hal admitted to himself they looked like the disorganized rabble they were. It was going to take a lot of work to whip them into shape. They had a long way to go. He worried what would happen if the imperial patrols Norak had out looking for them discovered their location. They’d be decimated if he found them and attacked the escaped slaves in force.