What was really cool was that now, there were markers showing the places of interest. The valley we were in, was what I remembered as a place called the Cavern of the Winds. In my time there were roads to access places. Now though, there was no easy way to travel anywhere, so it made sense that the invaders were coming right up through this valley. It actually worked perfectly into what I was planning.
I selected the next option, World Map. It was exactly what it said it was. It was a map of the world but done in an old timey style, like an explorer’s map, of the world, kind of like a cross between a map from Indiana Jones and one from the Secret of Mana games. It was pretty nifty, and the places where I had been were highlighted in real color, as opposed to an off white, like the rest of the map. The rest of the world was topographical and had main defining features. I could tell which landmasses were what continent, and there were various rivers and mountains ranges, but everywhere I hadn’t been was blank, looks like I needed to find out the information and then it would fill out. I surmised this because, the area we were in was filled out.
I selected the next option and the World Map disappeared, in its place a glowing florescent yellow well appeared. Everyone gasped as it appeared, including myself. It was beautiful. Bright neon colored yellow flowed like water but steamed like air at the same time. A message appeared.
EARTH MAGIC WELL
PROPERTIES UNACCESSIBLE AT CURRENT MAGIC LEVEL
As I dismissed the window, I noticed the Chieftess and Cunning Wolf share a look of incredulity and begin to whisper together.
“How can he use the god’s stone?” Chieftess Shining Eagle whispered.
“Well… he is touched by the god’s…” Cunning Wolf replied softly.
Grinning smugly to myself, I finished my perusal and dismissed the menu.
“Cunning Wolf do you have access to level 2?” I asked.
“I have no idea what you are talking about. What’s a level?” The old shaman snapped.
“Can you access the Stone Tableau of Earth and do anything else with it? Besides the map?” I asked, trying, and hopefully succeeding at hiding the annoyance in my voice.
“No, the map is all, and the fact you can do anything at all with it is mindboggling. This is our tribe’s greatest treasure and secret, yet you can already use it more efficiently than I, who has studied and used it for years.” He said, awe in his tone.
I nodded to him and looked around thinking. Most likely this meant that I had to gain Earth Magic to access the next level of the Megalith.
“Cunning Wolf can you teach me Earth Magic?” I asked.
“You already know Fire Magic, so yes, plus my god already said to aid you in anyway possible.” He replied.
“Good, after we fight this battle we will start on that.” I replied, then I looked around the room at the expectant faces. “As you can see with the map, the invaders only have one way to get to us. We are going to use that to our advantage.”
“What do you mean?” Chief Running Hawk asked.
“Just how good are you guys at building things?” I asked the Chieftess, as I pulled the local area map back up and began gesturing while explaining my plan. “The enemy is coming up through the mountains to the south and marching right through the main valley, towards us. Luckily, they march downhill now but when they get close the grounds slopes back up. Then they will have to approach us from below, coming up and climbing again, giving us the high ground, and causing them to tire out. Not only that, but the canyon is so serpentine that they won’t be able to use their artillery and guns to their full advantage.”
“What do you mean?” Moon Flower asked.
“These points here… here… and here…” I said, pointing at the canyon and each key place where the corridor turned. “Fortunately, each turn is just within extreme bow range, which is going to be key for our fight. Eventually, we will fortify all these positions, but for this battle we are going to focus on the last canyon. Chieftess, how many troops do you have? Never mind, scratch that, I know you and the Chief aren’t married yet, but do you accept me as your War Shaman?”
“I do.” She said, with no hesitation. “The Jicarilla tribe is under your control War Shaman.”
“I accept the Jicarilla Tribe as part of The People. I am your War Shaman.” I intoned.
As I finished saying the words a screen popped up for me. I perused it, grinning to myself.
WAR SHAMAN
TRIBES – THE PEOPLE, THE JICARILLA
ELITE WARRIORS – Moon Flower, Chief Running Hawk, Chieftess Screaming Eagle, Thunder Foot, Ice Blossom, Lightning Fist, Night Star, Silent Mouse, Shadow Bear, Dancing Lion, Stone Fox,
NORMAL MEMBERS – 32 WORKER/WARRIORS, 100(94/6) BUILDER/WARRIORS
RESOURCES COLLECTED – Wood-Abundant, Metals-Iron/Gold/Silver/Tin-Abundant, Food-Abundant, Animals- N/A
This all took place in a matter of moments with my new body and quick thinking. I looked around at those gathered, who were looking back at me with a mix of faces, ranging from worried, to scared, to bored, etc. I took a deep breath, smiled, and nodded around the room.
“Does anyone know what a berm is?” I said, grinning like a fat kid who just stole a big piece of chocolate fucking cake.
TRACK 6 – YOUNG FOLKS – PETER BJORN AND JOHN
“There.” Thunder Fist said from my right, pointing into the distance. “Moon Flower is returning.”
His voice jogged me from my thoughts, I looked up, and then to where he was pointing. I squinted, my enhanced vision let me see from where we were, at the far end of the canyon, and to where she was, galloping our way on Winston’s back. Freak was loping along at her side, his tongue lolling out and his face in a manic grin. I swear he loves this stuff. The trio was running, not wildly like they were fleeing, but at a steady ground eating pace. I could tell that they were coming to report. That was good. They were still a little way’s out, so I pulled my fiancés character sheet up and perused it.
NAME – Moon Flower
RACE – Human
ALIGNMENT – Neutral Good
CLASS – Fiancé
EXPERIENCE – 201/500
LEVEL – 2
HIT POINTS – 23/23
MAGIC POINTS – 23/23
The Companions to Jack-of-all-Trades are their own entities but gain bonuses from being a companion. The Fiancé class lets both fiancés share skills and all other aspects of life. The amount increases with level. Class gets own experience and upgrades different than Jack-of-all-Trades.
I dismissed the window, as she galloped in between the opening left for her, and the other scouts, in the berm. Freak leaped in right ahead of her and came over to me. Hopping up to the top of the ten-foot high earthen rampart with ease. I rubbed his ears and patted his muscled side. Freak was gigantic now, a veritable monster. I shook my head as I pictured my little kitten, now a twelve-foot long monster, and I scratched his favorite spots, a cat is a cat after all. Patting Freak on the side once more, I hopped down, walked up to Winston, rubbing his side and mane as I approached.
“Hello my love, miss me?” Moon Flower called, sliding down off Winston’s back and into my arms.
I caught her, and we embraced, sharing a long deep kiss in answer. It still blew my mind that a woman as amazing and beautiful as Moon Flower was my fiancé. We kissed for a few moments and then she broke it by pushing me away and chuckling throatily.
“The invaders are just around the bend. Silent Mouse is currently watching them as they approach. Don’t worry, he is hiding his presence, he should be here shortly with the final count. These Conquistadors are haughty and conceited. They have no scouts out and no one looking for traps or ambushes.” She said, finishing her statement with contempt in her voice.
“That’s perfect for us my love.” I replied, grinning. “How much time do we have?”
“The first of them should be rounding the bend in about fifteen minutes. There is Silent Mouse now.” She said, nodding towards the opposite e
nd of the canyon.
“Can you get the troops ready?” I asked, turning and watching the scout run our way.
“Sure thing love, Freak with me.” She called, smacking my ass as she walked away, already barking out orders. “Close that gap!”
I stifled a yelp and jumped only slightly, my face turning bright red as laughter broke out around me. I coughed and grinned good naturedly at the tribe’s folk around me. There are tradeoffs for being with a strong woman, this was one of them, and well… I won’t lie, I liked it, a lot.
Jicarilla builder warriors got to work and began filling the gap up with stone, then covering it with earth. Their stone hammers glowing with yellow Earth Magic as they worked. I watched for a moment in awe. The stone, dirt, and sand seemed to move as if commanded. The Jicarilla were so in tune with their element, that the ten-foot high, five-foot wide, and fifty-foot long berm, had been erected in just over two hours.
They had done exactly as I had asked. I had used my Total Recall skill and pulled a memory up of a Bastion Fort. There was a period where I was playing a shit ton of castle games, like Stronghold, and Tower Defense games, of which the Starcraft and Warcraft Mod’s were my favorite. Anyway, I digress, I was so into these games that I decided to do real research on fortifications. As usual, when researching I did a crazy deep dive and started from the beginning.
Until the invention of gunpowder, walls were the best form of defense out there, for pretty much all of human history. Fortifications are fascinating. Humanity started out by building on hilltops for defense. They figured out that it was better to be higher than your enemies. Then they figured out that if you put a wall around something and are higher up, than bam, even better defense. This was the motivating theory of defense for the majority of history, build big, high, thick, strong walls.
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_wall
Even with the invention of Catapults, and later on Trebuchets, walls still didn’t really change, bigger, stronger, wider, better. Look at the Great Wall of China, it is the best example of the pinnacle of wall building, pre-gunpowder, and still stands today. Except, it didn’t stop the Mongols, those dudes were just Billy Bad Ass, and were one of the influences for the way I was going to build my army. Anyway, walls didn’t change to much until the development of gunpowder. Cannons, mortars, and such destroyed the old ways of building fortifications.
After the weaponry surpassed the old style of forts and walls, engineers had to invent a new way to build defenses. Thus, in the 1500’s was born the Bastion Fort. Built by the ingenious Italians, they used the lessons they had learned in defeat. Walls that were slightly sloped, the outer works covered in earth to soften the projectiles impact. There was more to it than that, but those were the basics. I had ninety-four builders with access to Earth Magic abilities at my beck and call, so I was going to go big. Go big or go home right?
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastion_fort
The result was exactly what I had hoped. The front of the wall was sloped forming a seventy-five-degree angle, the top was five feet wide, then it lowered in the back to four feet. After that it leveled out with the canyon floor. It gave the best firing platform and defense simultaneously, was at the closest point in between to the rock walls, and at the last bend before you were walking to the Jicarilla villages door.
They were almost done filling the gap in the berm, when Silent Mouse hit the front running, a rope was lowered immediately, and the short, but lithe scout scampered up the earthen wall. I reached out and he grabbed my hand as he crested the top. A quick pull and he was over, with a nod of thanks. I gave him a moment to catch his breath. A few seconds later he stood upright and pointed to in the distance.
“They are just a few minutes around the bend. The rabble you mentioned is in the lead, I counted right around one hundred of them. They are made up of different tribes, I don’t recognize most of them. They are decorated in strange animal hides and carry spears and shields of weird make.” Silent Mouse reported. “Behind them are the Conquistadors on horseback, there are twelve of them as you said. They ride just ahead of the falcons…”
“Falconets.” I corrected.
“Yes, falconets.” He said, nodding at my interruption, “there are three of them with two horses apiece, each pulling each weapon. It will be at least a few minutes for them to get around the bend after the foot soldiers start to enter our canyon. The Conquistadors though, will be around the bend quickly.”
“Good job Silent Mouse. You’ve done well, join the battle line.” I said, patting him on the back. He nodded in salute and headed off.
“Are you sure this plan of yours will work?” Chief Running Hawk said, coming up next to me, Chieftess Shining Eagle by his side.
“The Chieftess did not exaggerate the skill of her, soon to be your people, Running Hawk. They did an amazing job on the defenses. From the looks of things, the invaders seem to think we are going to be just like the rest of the tribes they’ve taken over. So yeah, I think my plan will work.” I said.
“This bow is amazing.” Chieftess Shining Eagle said, holding the bow I had made at The Springs that the Chief hadn’t wanted. “It’s such an amazing gift, you are too kind. And yes, my people are great builders, but we are just as fierce warriors, which you will soon see.”
“Warriors to your places! Move!” Moon Flower called out, as the Jicarilla and my elite warriors ran to their places. My fiancé and Freak came up to stand by my side on the wall.
Horns blared in the distance. I turned at the sound. Focusing at the entrance at the other end of the canyon, I watched as the first of the foot soldiers entered our view. My mind began identifying the different tribes as they came into view. There were Aztec Jaguar Warriors, wearing their namesake’s skin as armor and headwear, carrying spears with obsidian tips, and knives of similar material at their hips. I also saw bows similar to Jicarilla and The People’s before I came.
With them were other Central American Indian tribes armed in a similar manner, Pinomes, Otomi, and Tlaxcalan Indians, to name the most dominate. I could tell by the different dress the tribesmen wore, and they were all men, not one woman among the foot soldiers, their ceremonial armor, more garb, was a plethora of different colored animals, birds, big cats, and other tropical beasts.
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlaxcaltec#Pre-Columbian_history
Suddenly, the weird horns sounded again, the foot soldiers stopped coming forward, and a commotion started at the rear, towards the canyons entrance.
TRACK 7 – SHAKE YA ASS – MYSTIKAL
“What’s going on?” Ice Blossom asked, from a few feet down the line.
Everyone was quiet as we watched the invaders strange maneuvers. The foot soldiers quit moving forward and stopped, then began separating, creating a pathway down their center. Besides Moon Flower, only I could see all the way over to the other side, so the rest of our party was unable to see exactly what was happening.
“The foot soldiers are separating and three of the Conquistadors are riding down the center of their ranks. One of them is carrying a tall spear with a large white cloth on it.” My fiancé explained for the others.
The three riders walked their large war horses, they were all almost as large as Winston, down the center of their soldiers. They moved at a nonchalant pace, neither to fast or slow, seemingly at ease with the world, I could tell by their movements that they weren’t worried about the upcoming battle. We will see if they still felt that way in a few minutes. I studied the three men as they approached.
The men rode in a triangular formation, with one man in the lead and two directly behind him. They passed through their warriors, where one broke off and began walking along with the horsemen, then they walked to the center of the canyon, between our two armies, stopped, and then began talking amongst themselves.
“Looks like they want to talk.” I said. “Four of them, so four of us. Chief, Chieftess, and Thunder Foot, will you come with me?”
&nb
sp; The three of them nodded in the affirmative, while Moon Flower gave me a frown.
“I need you to command the troops my love. If you see those falconets, start firing, no matter where we are. It’s imperative that they can’t get those into play.” I told my fiancé, kissing her lightly on the lips and giving her a hug.
“Of course. You can count on me.” She replied, hugging me back.
“Let’s go.” I said, motioning for the two leaders and big warrior to follow me. “Sorry Freak, you and Winston have to stay.”
My giant cat familiar yawned and dropped back to the ground, already napping. Dancing Lion and Shadow Bear dropped three ropes down, the Chief, Chieftess, and Thunder Foot each grabbed one, then worked their way down to the canyon floor below. I just placed a hand down on the berm and jumped off, landing with a light thump on the earth, which was actually fifteen feet down, due to the decline our berm was built on.
The three dropped the last few feet to the ground behind me, and the four of us began walking to the middle of the valley, and our first meeting with our enemies.
“So, what’s the plan?” Chief Running Hawk asked.
“Yes, I am also curious? Do we kill them right away or wait for your signal?” Thunder Foot chimed in.
Of course, the concept of a white flag was unknown to my Native friends.
“We are going to talk first, you see they have a requested a truce by bringing the white flag, so we will honor it, talk, and learn more about our enemies.” I explained.
“Why a white flag?” The Chief asked.
A good question. I had actually wondered that myself when I was younger. Hence, I did a bit of research on it.
“It originated a long, long time ago, in a country called China, and then was adopted by the invaders ancestors, the Roman Empire. From there it spread to most of the known world. Basically, it means that both parties agree to a truce while under the flag, there is a bit more to it than that, but those are the basics.” I explained.
I Am Gamer II Page 3