by Dean Henegar
Fortifying Call: This ability allows a cackle leader to bolster his forces, granting them a bonus of +3 to morale and +1 to defense for the next thirty seconds.
The three ghouls at the altar leapt through the air at the gnolls, hunger overriding caution. One of the gnolls managed to get his shield up in time, causing the ghoul to fall awkwardly to the ground. The gnoll quickly took advantage of its prone foe, snapping off several attacks from its battle axe and dropping the health of the undead to half. The other two undead were more successful in their attack, landing on their targets before they could react. Claws raked gnoll flesh, easily piercing the thin leather harness, while sharp teeth tore strips of flesh from the gnolls throats. Both gnolls went rigid and dropped to the floor, paralyzed by the touch of the ghouls. Grizak lashed out with both axes at one of the ghouls tearing into his warriors. The powerful blows dealt heavy damage, as well as landing a critical strike that severed an arm off the ghoul. Grizak activated a whirlwind attack, his axes flashing in front of him, driving back and damaging the ghouls as he forced them back from the paralyzed warriors.
While Grizak went to work, the remaining five gnolls that had not fled launched an attack on the ghoul lord. Before they could reach their target, Dunderman opened his mouth wide and shot his tongue out. The strike pierced the chest of a gnoll. The gnoll’s health dropped to ten percent as the advanced paralysis from the ghoul lord took effect. The ghoul lord then met the charge of the remaining four gnolls that faced him, skittering quickly across the dirt floor before lashing out with its claw tipped fingers. Despite its gaunt appearance, the ghoul lord was incredibly strong; its muscles atrophied in death, but enhanced by necromantic energies. His claws pierced armor, shattered shields, and clove hides as Dunderman quickly killed two and incapacitated three of the gnoll warriors facing him. Only a few strikes from the gnoll battleaxes made it through the slashing claws. The ghoul lord still had over ninety percent of his health remaining.
The four gnolls that had fled from the fight exited the mound, emerging back into the sunlit forest. They jabbered in fear to Foulfur, saying that the others were being killed by creatures in the mound.
“Stop babbling and describe the creatures for me. How many were there, and were any of the others alive when you coward’s fled?” Foulfur demanded. Foulfur quickly ascertained that they were facing ghouls. Ghouls were fierce and cunning foes, but unless they managed to paralyze you, could be easily handled by the forces here. The cowards that fled mentioned four ghouls, so there was a good chance Grizak, who still had eight warriors with him, was alive. Since Grizak hadn’t ordered him to help, Foulfur went about gathering the remaining warriors and trackers together. The shaman was content to safely wait here to see which group emerged victorious from the mound. Four ghouls would have, indeed, been easy for the gnolls to defeat. Unfortunately, Foulfur didn’t realize that one of the ghouls was a ghoul lord.
Grizak and the only non-paralyzed warrior were able to finish off the three ghouls they faced. As the last ghoul dropped, Grizak looked to his other warriors, surprised to see the ghoul lord sitting on top of one of the paralyzed gnolls he had just defeated, snacking on strips of flesh he peeled from the gnoll. The gnoll’s eyes looked at Grizak in impotent pleading, feeling the pain of the ghoul’s claws while not being able to move. The ghoul lord’s paralysis ability lasting much longer than the paralysis of a regular ghoul. Grizak realized this was a foe he didn’t want to face. While the ghoul lord toyed with its victims, the two gnolls near Grizak recovered from their paralysis. Their health was low, but they could still serve as a distraction.
“You two, get into the fight. We’ll flank that thing once you engage,” Grizak ordered. The two wounded gnolls reluctantly obeyed, charging at the ghoul lord, while Grizak and the last healthy warrior fled down the tunnel. Grizak focused on getting out as quickly as he could, always willing to sacrifice his underlings to save his own hide. Looking behind, Grizak could see the two wounded gnolls quickly fall to the ghoul lord’s claws. The ghoul lord then began to pursue Grizak and the last warrior with him, slowly overtaking the gnolls as the ghoul lord taunted them.
“Run, run, hyena-man. Dunderman will catch you, yes he can,” the ghoul lord taunted. Just as Grizak reached the entrance, he heard the gnoll behind him cry out as the ghoul lord caught up to it, easily killing the terrified gnoll with a flick of his claws before renewing his pursuit of Grizak.
Bursting out of tunnel and back into the daylight, Grizak sprinted toward the rest of his cackle. He could see that Foulfur had gathered the remaining warriors and trackers together, ready for a fight. The bloodseeker hyena began to growl as the ghoul lord followed Grizak into the light. Unlike many undead, ghouls were not afraid of, or damaged by, the light. There was something perhaps more disturbing at seeing the undead creature saunter confidently in bright daylight, rather than slinking in the dark, as was expected of their kind. Completely unafraid of what faced him, Dunderman addressed the gnolls.
“Welcome to the family, most of you,” Dunderman said, while clapping excitedly and examining the gnolls in front of him. “We need more soldiers, but you and you,” Dunderman pointed at Grizak and Foulfur, “will need a bit of extra attention, I believe. Rise and greet our future recruits, my soldiers,” Dunderman proclaimed, as several patches of loose dirt around the edge of the clearing began to move as six more ghouls dug their way out of the shallow graves they were in, surrounding what remained of the cackle.
Grizak looked about in fear before beginning to issue orders. “You trackers, slow down those ghouls.” Grizak pointed toward the six ghouls that had dug themselves up behind the gnolls. “Foulfur and the rest of you warriors, kill that one that’s by himself.” Foulfur hesitated for a moment, allowing the warriors to push out in front before beginning to cast a spell. Grizak watched and waited for either an opening to strike, or a chance to flee.
The trappers led off by throwing their nets at the newly risen ghouls. Two were caught and fell to the ground as they began to slash at the nets. The bloodscent hyena charged one of the still standing ghouls, using a knockdown ability it had for stopping prey. The remaining three ghouls faced off with the trackers. The trackers soon found that a short spear, no shield, and light armor were not the most effective defense against a ghoul. The ghouls ignored the light damage caused by the trackers’ spears and were able to easily slash at the trackers with their disease-ridden claws.
Grizak had seen enough. All six of the ghouls that had emerged from their shallow graves were either trying to free themselves, or concentrating on fighting, giving him a brief window of opportunity. Grizak hurtled past the fighting, running away from his cackle and the fight. He was going to lose his cackle, but better that, than losing his own life. The only thing that brought a smile to his face was knowing that Foulfur was soon to be food for the undead. Grizak ran as fast as his considerable endurance would allow, already concocting a story for the Cacklemaster to explain his failure. Grizak would spin a tale about a treasonous Foulfur, trying to sell out the cackle to the humans for money. Grizak would have stayed and fought, of course, but had to return and warn the cackle. The Cacklemaster would later appear to believe the story, right before he ordered Grizak killed for incompetence.
Foulfur finished his cast and a ball of lightning flew from his hand to hit the ghoul lord in the chest. The lightning crackled about the ghoul’s form, shaving off ten percent of its health and leaving it stunned for a moment. The four warriors took advantage and began to strike at the ghoul lord. The battle axes powered by strong gnoll arms did little damage. Dunderman had gained the ability to resist a good chunk of non-magical damage. The ghoul lord recovered and activated his fear aura once more. The four warriors again turned and ran, their willpower weakened from their earlier flight. Foulfur looked to see that the trackers were losing their fight with the other six ghouls and would be of no help. It also appeared that Grizak had fled...time for Foulfur to do the same. After running a few steps, a sla
sh opened on the back of Foulfur and he found himself falling to the ground as the ghoul lord used an ability that granted a ranged attack on his claws for a short time. Unable to move or speak, Foulfur was lost in total panic as the ghoul lord slowly sauntered over to the shaman. The ghoul lord sat on the back of the shaman with a contented sigh and began to dig painfully into the shaman’s back, picking delicate morsels to snack on.
“You gnolls have made me very happy today. That band of adventurers we fought earlier had depleted my forces, but now I’ll have even more than I started with, once you all turn. You, my friend, are a bit physically weak though.” Dunderman licked his claw and held up his hand for his audience of one to wait before passing judgement. “Really, my friend, I don’t mean to offend you. Ghouls, you see, other than a ghoul lord like me, lose their ability to cast spells after they convert to their new forms. Once you turned, you would just be a weaker version of the other gnolls, not very useful in combat, I have to say. Don’t worry, there is a place for everyone in the army of Lord Dunderman…your place will be as a tasty snack for your former comrades, once they turn. Then, perhaps, we’ll see about having the trackers find where your leader ran off to. It’s time for my group to move and grow. Wherever you came from should have lots of meat and recruits.” Dunderman then fell silent, enjoying his snack and savoring the pain that the slowly dying shaman was flavored with. He would pursue the gnoll leader, Grizak, and there would be feasting for his ever-growing horde. This place was picked over, too few visitors. It was time for Dunderman to stop playing host to the few random folks passing by. It was time to start playing the role of unwelcome visitor.
Chapter 17
You have died. This is your second death within a twenty-four-hour period. There is a 100-experience point penalty deducted from your total experience. Another death within the next twenty-four hours will result in a 250-experience penalty and a one hour respawn time. Subsequent deaths within the same twenty-four-hour period will result in an increasing experience penalty, as well as a greater chance to drop items that are not soul bound.
I was angry with myself while waiting for the respawn timer to tick down. I had been complacent because I was in a game and had forgotten that my opponents, whether npc’s or real players like the Bloody Blades, could think tactically as well. This was a mistake I wouldn’t repeat. We were going to have step up our ability to defend the key areas of the town. While waiting on the respawn timer, I began to think about what the Bloody Blades had hoped to accomplish with the assassination. This was a well-planned attack by an extremely deadly foe, and my opponent was hired from outside the guild. This was a strange development from a guild who were much less inventive in their prior attacks. Could there be some new leader that had some strategic skill working for the Bloody Blades now? From the amount of damage my killer had done, I had to assume she was a much higher level than me. The killer also had an ability that masked her name and level, preventing identification.
When the respawn timer hit zero, I found myself, once again, in the graveyard just outside the town. Standing guard around the graveyard was Sergeant Brooks and a squad of our soldiers.
“Sir, welcome back. The attack is over, but they hit the mines hard and assassinated the mayor as well as yourself. I’ve sent reinforcements to the mine and made sure the garrison is now properly protected. I take full responsibility for the lapse in security, sir,” Brooks offered, clearly as embarrassed as I was for the lack of foresight in having adequate security.
“I’m as much, if not more, responsible for this, Sergeant. We’ll have to work together to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I may have to begin to spend some resources and gold to upgrade things here. Wait, did you say there was an attack on the mine, and that the mayor was killed?” I asked, as what I had just heard from the sergeant began to register.
“Yes, sir. The mayor respawned about ten minutes ago and then ran off to the mine after making sure the rest of the town was safe. While the assassins were killing you and the mayor, a group of eight players attacked the mines. They killed five of the town guard and six of the garrison defense force. Unfortunately, there were also over a dozen goblins killed and Chief Bugtug is hopping mad about it,” Brooks advised.
“Thanks for the details, Sergeant. I’ll take the squad you have here as an escort and head over to the mine. I’d feel more comfortable if you could make a tour of the defenses in the town and make sure we don’t have any more surprises waiting for us this evening,” I told Sergeant Brooks, as I headed toward the mine to meet with Mayor Delling and Chief Bugtug. We made it to the mine without any further incident and I could see a group of five, very alert town guard standing watch over the entrance. They quickly waved us in, letting me know that Mayor Delling was waiting in the second chamber. I noted that the mine had finally been cleaned of all signs that the spiders had ever been here.
Entering the second large chamber, I could see Delling, Bugtug, and for some reason Phineas, standing over the body of a goblin. The body of the goblin turned out to be Chief Bugtug’s son, Kip Kip. The diminutive goblin was well liked in town; known by most as Phineas’ funny goblin employee.
“Raytak, glad to see you’re back. It looks like the attackers killed poor Kip Kip, as well as over a dozen of the miners. I’ve increased the presence of the town guard here at the mine entrance, but I don’t know if there will be more attacks,” Delling told me, as he paced nervously. The destruction of the previous town still weighed on the player. I remembered that he was in a contest with others from his university and facing another setback could keep him from earning a scholarship.
“Don’t worry, Delling. I can’t help but think the attacks were likely a one-time thing. Other than an annoying respawn and losing a few coins, it really doesn’t hurt us if they attack here. I would guess they must just want to keep us off our game and waste time looking for killers under every rock in town. I say we do what we can to increase our level of security and improve the defenses at critical locations. Damaging town structures and killing off resources, like the goblin miners, are the only things they can do that would cause some real harm. The town is doing well, and I know you’re moving things in the right direction to keep us growing.” I paused for a moment, thinking about some improvements we could make.
“Make sure you have some of your guards assigned to the town hall at all hours and that they are randomizing their patrols through town. We don’t want to become predictable. We’ll rig up a system to let everyone know if there’s trouble at a particular spot. We can use bells, whistles, or something of that nature, as signal devices. The defensive garrison force, that I just unlocked, has two squads dedicated as a quick reaction force if there is another attack. With some better fixed defenses in place, the forces we have can hold against any small attack until help arrives. Don’t get too stressed, Delling. Between Ty and me, we have over fifty years of combined real-world experience fighting insurgents. We’ll find a way to beat these clowns,” I assured Delling. I could see him relax a bit, allowing himself to calm down from the anger and anxiety he was feeling. Turning toward Bugtug, I offered my condolences. “Chief, I’m sorry for your loss. Rest assured the Imperium is after these Bloody Blade characters and my troops will see Kip Kip avenged.
Bugtug glared off in the distance. His earlier display of indifference had been a show. He didn’t want the rest of the tribe to realize that he loved his son, Kip Kip, and had allowed him to work with Phineas because his son enjoyed it so much. Bugtug’s eyes were glassy with tears, yet he allowed none to fall. Showing weakness was a sure-fire way to have another goblin challenge you for control of the tribe.
“Bugtug not care; have too much work to do,” the chief grunted, then walked back toward his throne area in the next cavern. He growled at and smacked a couple of the miners along the way, letting them know it was time to get back to work.
“Thanks for helping me calm down, Raytak. You’re right about what we need to do. I’ll up the
priority for defenses in the town and see about expanding the guardhouse as soon as possible. It just irks me that there are players who get their jollies off causing trouble for us. I know they’re just a miniscule portion of the player base, but do they even care that what they do harms other people? If I win this scholarship, it could change my whole future. I’m going to head over to the town hall and get back to work. Thanks for being a good friend and helping to sort all this stuff out, Raytak,” Delling said as he moved off, followed by the two town guardsmen who were acting as bodyguards.
I left the mines as well, heading toward the garrison to review if there were any upgrades that could help. I hadn’t delved into the war table that much, earlier; just enough to unlock the defensive garrison. Back at the garrison, I could see that there was a full squad of the defensive garrison soldiers, led by their sergeant, vigilantly watching for any trouble. Confident the nco had security well in hand, I entered the barracks and headed directly to the war table. Jumping into the interface, I selected upgrades to see what was available.
Level 2 Garrison: 500 resources/100 gold required. This upgrade will expand your garrison, allowing it to house up to 1 full company of troops and their attached auxiliary forces. This upgrade provides an increased level of creature comforts for your soldiers, improving quality of life and morale. This upgrade also allows for increased replacement of losses. Other upgrade options are unlocked as the main garrison is upgraded.
Aid Station: 100 resources/15 gold. The aid station enables you to treat wounds and disease among your forces more effectively. This upgrade also improves your squads, upgrading one soldier in each to become a medic. The medic fights as well as any other standard soldier and can use magically enhanced bandages to create a heal over time effect for wounded soldiers during the heat of battle. Further upgrades of the aid station, as well as the garrison, will improve health regeneration and may provide other benefits.