Upon the altar, an old man appeared. Heavily muscled with a long white hair and beard, he held a spear in his left hand. His right was missing.
When he spoke, the walls thrummed. “I am Tyr. God of War!”
As the warriors in the room dropped to one knee in reverence, he pronounced, “I have heard your oath! I honor the thirst for vengeance in battle! Let any who would fight for the light seek the temples of this city. Touch your blades to the stone. We shall bless your weapons so that the Dark Ones scream in agony at their touch!”
The ancient god nodded once to Alexander and faded from sight.
Alexander called out. “The day grows dark! Our enemy knows we’re coming. And the dark is where they thrive. But the gods of light have granted us their blessing! Where we go, darkness shall fall. The servants of the drow wizards shall retreat in fear, only to find our blades waiting wherever they turn!”
“NO MERCY!” the gathered shouted.
Alexander answered, “NO MERCY!”
Princess Kimberly entered the room wearing her full armor and carrying her shield. She looked around at the glowing weapons and angry faces. Walking up to Brick, she whispered, “What’d I miss?”
Sasha snorted. She whispered back, “Dork boy over there. Pardon me, ‘His Royal Majesty, King Dorkboy’ just went all ‘Leeeeroy!’ on us. He threw a fit and swore some kind of blood oath. We all got a legendary quest to basically kill every drow, everywhere.”
“Sounds good to me! Let’s get started!” the princess agreed wholeheartedly.
Alexander, somewhat calmed after his outburst, opened guild chat. “Kai, change of plans. Our secret is out. But we’ve been given a gift that will help us. Every dwarf, every man that you and Fitz bring will need to visit a temple and have their weapons blessed.”
He looked for Michael, finding him standing protectively next to Tiny Sam. “Michael. Is there a temple near the guild house?”
The old knight grinned. “Not three blocks north. Temple of Asclepius. It’s why Martin chose the location he did.”
Alexander called out in guild chat again. “There’s a temple just north of the guild house. As soon as you bring the troops through the portal, they can go there.”
“No need, Alexander. The temples here have just begun granting a blessing. Gods of light appeared at each of them with a message,” Kai answered.
“Master, I have been monitoring your conversation. Master Ironhammer is in the Greystone Manor compound telling someone the forge just lit up, and all the weapons are glowing.”
“Thank you, Jeeves. It seems King Charles was able to get his defenses together.”
Alexander quickly updated the queen. Then he suggested, “My people and I should get over to our guild house and prepare. Will you be safe here? Or would you and the princess like to join us there?”
Queen Margaret said, “I need to attend to my people here. Kimberly will go with you. I doubt I could stop her if I wanted to.” She smiled sadly.
Sir Jeffrey said, “I will cycle our troops through the temples and have them report to you at your guild house in twenty minutes. We’ll send the adventurers on your signal.”
Alexander smiled, getting to say something he’d secretly wanted to say for years. “Watch for a fireball in the sky.”
Then he turned and called out, “Gather up, folks. It’s time.”
He teleported his people over to the guild house in groups of ten. No need to risk larger groups. He sent Sasha with the first group, and she began organizing them into parties as they arrived. He brought the last group with him to find people already grouped up and preparing. Lugs, Helga, Benny, and Beatrix would be deployed to coordinate the forces outside. One with the players who’d be attacking, one with the dwarves in the tunnels, one on the rooftops with the archers and mages, and one with the queen’s support troops.
Alexander had some ideas on how to help with the diversion. First, he went out the back of the house to the courtyard. The back wall of the compound, the one that separated them from Chaos Nation’s house, was twenty feet high. He quickly raised a set of stone steps, thirty feet wide, leading to the top of the wall. Now players could zerg over the wall and attack the house. He assumed the enemy was watching him, but it didn’t matter. The whole attack was just a distraction.
Next, he went down the hatch and into the tunnel below. He took out his dagger and scratched some words and arrows into the wall where he stood. Anyone watching would think he was writing a spell or directions. What he was really doing was softening the stone right below the Chaos Nation hatch farther down the tunnel to the consistency of fresh-poured concrete. He left a solid path along the opposite wall so that the dwarves could pass safely. His plan was to have them form shield walls across the tunnel on either side of the hatch. Anyone dropping or climbing down was going to sink into the stone, and be detectable. And detectable drow were no match for angry dwarves.
He had no useful ideas for helping the archers and mages. They would be shooting from above on all sides.
Satisfied that he’d done what he could, he joined the others in the main room. Lugs was going with the dwarves, so he told him about the soft stone and the path. He showed Benny the stairs out back, so he could direct players around their house and over the wall before going to join the queen’s men.
The portal opened outside, and a stream of dwarven warriors in columns five wide began to march through. Alexander stopped counting after two hundred. Each of them carried a softly glowing shield and weapon. They sang a battle hymn as they marched, having been told there was no reason for stealth. The sound was deep and primal and set Alexander’s heart to racing.
Shortly after the portal closed behind them, it re-opened, and a procession of pikemen, archers, and mages stepped through, led by Fitz. They, too, had glowing weapons.
Surprisingly, the portal opened for a third time, and Kai led a dozen people through from what looked like a valley of stone. Sasha made the connection faster than Alexander did.
“Dragons. Kai, you brought a dozen dragons?”
“Oh, damn,” Pollock said, “Shit just got real.”
Alexander stepped forward. “Welcome to our modest little compound. I am Alexander.”
The dragons all bowed their heads, making Alexander extremely self-conscious. These were beings of legend. Immortal and powerful. He fought the urge to bow deeply and simply matched their gesture.
One of them stepped forward. He was dressed in simple black leather with a silver star pinned on his collar. “I am Landimastrim. Please call me Lan. We have come to purge the drow from this city. They made a mistake showing themselves so boldly. And another in attacking our prince. We are here to make them pay for those mistakes.”
Another dragon, a female, knelt on one knee and put her hand on the ground. “This place hums with light magic. Holy magic. Interesting.”
Alexander tried to explain. “We held a ritual, prayed to all the gods we knew, asked for their protection. They granted it.” She smiled indulgingly at him. “Indeed they did. No drow will walk in stealth here. This makes our job much simpler.”
Sasha filled Kai and the dragons in on their plan. The dragons assigned themselves to various stations above and below ground. None asked to go inside with Alexander.
Sasha called out, “Right! Everybody knows where to go! Let’s get there!”
Lugs had already led a contingent of the dwarves into the house and down to the cellar. They took a couple of human mages and healers with them. The other dwarves marched out of the compound and down the street to establish a perimeter around the target. They were followed by pikemen from Stormforge and guards from Antalia. Alexander found a way to assist the archers and mages after all, by teleporting them to the various rooftops he could see. He sent Beatrix up on a roof with the mages and assigned Helga to be the rabble-rouser among the Antalia players. She embraced her role wholeheartedly.
Passing out the Chaos Nation teleport scrolls, he said, “Okay. Fir
st group will be me, Sasha, Brick, Grumpy, Pollock and his guys, Warren, and Max. Max, step over here with Sasha and me. The rest of you, form a circle. Backs to us, shields up. Tighten it up. Now crouch down. We’re going in there under a turtle shell. I expect them to be waiting for us. Let them fire a first volley, then each of you pick a target and charge. We’ll clear the center of the room for the next group.”
Lainey had the next scroll. He looked at her and said, “Fifteen seconds. Then you go. And be firing as soon as you get there.” Her group was Lorian, Jules, Kimberly, Michael, Fibble, Fitz, Lyra, and Misty.
With nothing left to say, Alexander told Beatrix to give the signal via guild chat, hunkered down inside the ring of shields and activated the scroll.
Chapter 20
Darkness Fallen
The instant they appeared, the room exploded in sound and motion. Arrows and spells impacted shields. Shouts of surprise and calls to attack. After the initial volley, Alexander yelled, “Now!”
They were in a small room, maybe ten feet square. There was a single door, which was rapidly filling with players. Brick activated his Shield Rush and blasted his way through, knocking several of them back out of the room in the process. Grumpy took down a couple players to Brick’s left, and Warren to his right. Pollock and his two warriors charged enemies at the back of the room. Sasha focused on heals as she, Max, Alexander, and Orville moved up behind Brick. The three men fired arrows and magic missiles at the only two unspoken-for players, who stood along a side wall. Alexander cast Wizard’s Fire on the group of players trying to push past Brick into the room, and Sasha cast a Thorn Trap to hold them still.
Alexander used his sword to stab the face of a player Brick had knocked down and stepped over. Orville crushed the skull of another with the butt of his staff. Sasha was stomping on the throat of another while casting heals on Brick, who was taking damage quickly.
With a flash, the second group appeared. Lyra, Fibble, and Fitz immediately began helping with heals. Misty froze the two players on the side of the room into solid blocks of ice. Lorian and Lainey joined Max in filling the doorway above Brick’s head with arrows.
Kimberly and Michael raised their shields and stepped between the door and the lightly armored healers and casters.
Pollock and his two warriors had finished off the two enemies at the back wall. The corpses were nearly unrecognizable as human. All three moved to the two frozen players against the side wall. Misty unfroze them, and the warriors went to work before they could even raise weapons to defend themselves. Their deaths were brutal, and not quick.
A voice out in the hall shouted, “Pull back! Don’t fight in the hall! Pull back!”
The pressure on the doorway quickly dissipated. Brick and company got in some good licks on retreating players before they got out of reach. Max, Lainey, and Lorian stepped to the doorway and continued to fire down the hall, eliciting a few more cries of pain.
Alexander looked around as Max and Lainey began looting. Ten dead enemies in the room, three more in the hall outside. Most piled right by the door. Thanks to his healers, all of his party were in good shape.
Sasha said, “All players, no drow.”
Alexander nodded. “As daft as it sounds, expect the drow to be where you don’t expect them. If the light magic penetrated this place, they might not be able to stealth. But they can still hide behind doors or around corners.”
Lugs voice came across guild chat. “Six just dropped through the hatch and got stuck. Four adventurers, two drow. The dwarves made quick work of them.”
Helga added, “The local adventurers are bashing at the front and back doors, trying to break windows. That place is apparently pretty tough. Some archers showed up on the roof to try and take them out, but they looked like porcupines in seconds. I think there were five, but they went down so soon I’m not sure.”
Beatrix’s tiny voice confirmed, “There were five in the back, three in the front. All dead. Or if they’re not dead, they are in a LOT of pain.”
Brick chuckled at that. Chris said, “Hell yeah!”
Sasha said, “Brick, tell me what you saw out there?”
“Aye. Hallway goes straight ahead ten feet, then both left ‘n’ right. I see faces peek’n at me from both corners.”
“Okay, let’s move down the hall a bit. Archers, watch the corners. Tag any eye that peeks at us!”
Brick had stepped forward maybe three paces, with Grumpy and Warren keeping pace at his side, and the others were just stepping toward the door when there was a flash behind them.
A dozen drow appeared, daggers and swords in hand. “Behind us!” Michael yelled as he and Kimberly spun and raised their shields. Pollock and his warriors immediately moved to join them, forming a semicircle of shields and armor just inside the door.
Sasha cast Thorn Trap, and Alexander added Wizard’s Fire. Lorian turned and began firing at the drow as Max and Lainey kept their focus forward. Misty cast ice bolts, and Brick turned his head long enough to hit one of them with Holy Smite. Orville practically flooded the room with fireballs.
“Shit!” Sasha yelled. “They’ve got us bottled up! And they can just keep teleporting reinforcements in here!”
As she spoke, a dark magic bolt passed by her head and hit Lorian in the chest. The half-elf screamed as he fell backward, the worm-bolt already burrowing into him. Sasha hit him with her best heal, knowing it would make no difference. Lorian’s health bar was already down to 30%. Fibble hit the elf with a couple of healing bursts, shouting “Pew! Pew!”
Fitz knelt next to Lorian and grabbed hold of the portion of the worm that was still exposed. With a word, the thing turned to ash. Sasha tried again to heal Lorian, and this time it worked.
Fitz growled as he rose to his feet. “This will not do.” Stepping to the doorway, he crouched down and put a hand on the floor. He shouted, “All of you! Out of the room, now!”
Pollock and friends quickly retreated to the hall. Kimberly and Michael stepped back through the doorway together, drow with swords hacking at their shields.
Fitz shouted a command, and hundreds of stone spikes shot up from the floor, impaling the feet and legs of every drow in the room. Then those spikes grew more spikes, like tree branches shooting off from the trunks. In moments, nothing lived inside the room. The entire floor area was filled with sharp points, and razor edges three feet deep.
“Let them try to teleport in now,” Fitz growled.
“Holy shit, Fitz!” Misty gasped. “That’s the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen. Remind me not to piss you off.”
Even as she spoke, there was another flash, and a group of six drow appeared amid the spikes. They were dead almost instantly, the weight of their lifeless bodies dragging them down deeper into the spikes and sharp edges. Their bodies simply fell apart.
Misty gagged and turned away, not wanting to see more. Several of the others did as well. Sasha muttered, “No Mercy.”
Alexander called out, “Surrender, and we’ll give you clean deaths! Your reinforcements are cut off! The house is surrounded. The tunnels are blocked. The room is a death trap. You have no place to go!”
The same voice that had called for retreat now shouted, “Kiss my ass! This is our house! You’re all gonna die here!”
Fitz nudged Alexander. “We need a few of them alive. Preferably drow. I have questions.”
Alexander grinned. “Our wizard tells me he needs a few of you alive. I’ve seen what he does to prisoners. I wouldn’t volunteer if I were you!”
“Screw you!” The voice faltered as several flashes of light reflected down the corridor toward the Greystones.
“Your people are bailing on you! More than a dozen of you are already dead. There can’t be that many more in here, the place isn’t that big! And if you’re thinking of stalling for time so your dead can return, think again. You’ve all been declared enemies of the state. When they return, it will be in the queen’s dungeon!”
A female voice sh
outed, “We’ll surrender if you let us g-” she was cut off before she could finish.
“NO MERCY!” Brick shouted.
The others answered, “No Mercy!”
The tank began to advance down the hallway. They were nearly at the corners now, and their backs were secure. So while Pollock and his three hung back to watch the rear, Michael and Kimberly moved forward. At the intersection, the five of them split. Brick and Warren wheeled to the right, while Kimberly, Grumpy, and Michael moved left.
Immediately they were attacked from both sides. Weapons and spells crashed against shields. A burst of fire scorched Warren but just bounced right off Brick, healing him a bit in the process.
Brick’s short stature proved costly as a dark bolt passed over his head to strike Orville in the back. The mage went down with a scream and thrashed for a moment before dying. Fitz hadn’t even had time to get to him. A classic glass cannon, his health pool was small. Fitz disposed of the worm that still wriggled in Orville’s dead body.
“Orville’s gone!” shouted Pollock.
“Oh, my god; you killed Orville! You bastards!” Chris shouted.
The third warrior, Kellos, leapt over Grumpy’s shoulder and hacked into the enemies there, shouting “Leeeeeeeeroy!” His two friends followed, and the three went into a frenzy. Blood splashed as weapons and armor screeched. Chris died even as he took the head of the barbarian that killed him. Pollock lost an eye to a thrown dagger that looked drow in origin. But he pulled it out and drove it into the forehead of a warrior in front of him.
Grumpy and the others moved forward, trying to cover their guildmates. The archers poured fire into the group. Pollock went down, his missing eye preventing him from seeing a spear thrust from that side. Kellos screamed in rage and hacked wildly left and right, not caring if he took hits. He severed arms and legs with every swing. All three healers focused on him, somehow keeping him alive until he found himself in open space. He’d cut a path through the enemy. He turned, bleeding badly and drooping, to hack his way back toward his friends.
Darkness Fallen Page 42