Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  Said portcullis was lying on the ground inside of the walls. Delgar, when Eddie had told him he needed a rush job on it, had grumbled and asked why. When Eddie had explained the situation to him, the dwarfish smith had grimaced, but the portcullis had arrived earlier today in a cart, along with the fittings to mount it.

  Although I think the fittings are going to have to wait. It's about a quarter to six and I want to eat before we fight. Plus I should eat a while before we fight so it doesn't cause problems. Then we need to get the portcullis into its slot so the Orcs don't have a clear path in through the gate, Eddie thought.

  He wolfed down his food, keeping an eye on the masons. When he saw them all relax and draw back from the wall he let out a long breath.

  “Jern, I need your help down in the yard. Allie, would you come also? We're going to have to manhandle the portcullis into its spot without a wall walk over there. It's just temporary, I have all the stuff to mount it correctly, just no time for that right now.”

  Jern swallowed a mouthful of food and stood, Allie dropped down from the wall walk to the interior. Meanwhile Karl stood as well.

  “I don't have the strength to help heft it, but I can climb to the top of the wall and help guide it maybe,” he said.

  Instead of climbing, he ran down the northern wall walk, then walked the top of the wall to a position right over where the portcullis was going to be mounted. Tiana stood as well.

  “I'm coming with. If you drop that thing, someone's going to need healing,” she said.

  Dominic kept eating, but swallowed long enough to add in his two copper worth.

  “I'll stay up here and keep an eye out for the Orcs. Be a shame to miss our ranged attacks if they show up earlier than expected.”

  Eddie grinned at the wizard. He knew Dominic didn't have the strength to do much of anything physical, he'd seen the man getting others to roll his finished casks and barrels of beer out of the brewery. He hadn't expected the wizard to help, but he hadn't expected Karl and Tiana to volunteer either.

  Dominic gave him a quick grin in return, then grabbed a bite of food and turned to stare out at the north northeast where the Orcs had come from the last time.

  Eddie and the others went to heave the portcullis into position, but the thing was so heavy they were having difficulties. Two of the masons stacked some of the remaining stone blocks to either side and climbed the piles. From that position they were able to take some of the weight and the portcullis slowly moved into position.

  They ended up with Eddie supporting Jern on his shoulders and one of the masons with Allie on theirs. With a final heave the portcullis made a grating sound that left Eddie wincing as it slid down into position with a solid 'Clunk!'. They'd managed to get it into place with no more injuries than a few sore muscles and a close call or two.

  “Well shit,” Eddie said, looking at the portcullis. “Allie and Jern, can you lift that straight back up while I pile some bricks under it to hold it up? The masons need to get out of here and the adventurers need to get in.”

  He'd just noticed the first of the adventurers moving up the road when he realized the problem.

  Jern took a deep breath, walked over to the portcullis and heaved. It moved upwards slowly. Once Allie grabbed on beside him and lifted with a grunt, it moved more easily. Eddie quickly grabbed stone blocks, glad for the fact that most of the materials for the first tower they were going to build were already here, and started stacking.

  A minute later they had the bottom of the portcullis braced at six feet up, as high as Jern had been able to continue helping. Allie had tried to push it higher but admitted, red-faced, that she wouldn't be able to hold it up there for very long. They settled for six feet since most of the adventurers could walk right under it and the rest only had to duck a little bit.

  “Alright, thank you guys. You should get out of here now though, you don't want to be here when the Orcs attack,” Eddie said to the masons. “But, you'll get your time and a half, plus if any of you want to stop by the inn tonight I'll spot you a beer.”

  The masons let out a soft cheer then started filing out of the area. Moments after they'd cleared the portcullis, the adventurers started filing in. Unlike Eddie and his group, most of them looked well-rested and ready for a fight. Eddie himself just wanted a few minutes to sit before the fight started. Between the masonry and manhandling the portcullis into position, his stamina was nowhere near full and he'd like to regen some of it.

  He checked the clock and realized that he just might get his wish. It was only a couple of minutes past six.

  “Alright guys, I need a few minutes to regen my stamina, but here's the deal. The wall walks are up on the north and east walls. The Orcs come in roughly from the northeast. So missile troops and casters should go to the wall walks. Melee types, you can plan to sally or just guard the portcullis. It's the weak spot since it's just kind of sitting in there with no braces or fittings. It was the best we could manage with the time we had.”

  “Shit Eddie, this whole mess wasn't here a week ago. I'd say you managed pretty well,” an adventurer replied.

  It was a familiar voice, the same one that had claimed that they were going to start following him around a while back.

  “Yeah, well, I had the plans and the site. I just wasn't getting attacked by waves of Orcs back then. It's a powerful motivator, I can tell you that,” Eddie said.

  “Hey, works for us,” the same voice said. “Experience on the hoof? Coming to us? Plus some half-decent loot? I'm loving it.”

  Eddie sighed and shook his head.

  “Anyhow, I'm going to go sit, eat, and regen some stamina before the fight starts. We've got between ten and twenty minutes before I expect them to show up, so you might want to start any preps you have to make also.”

  Eddie climbed to the wall walk and grabbed some more of the food Tiana had brought along. Then he stared out over the, now completed, crenelations in this section, watching for Orcs.

  ~ ~ ~

  When the Orcs came it was almost anti-climactic. Those with bows engaged the Orcs at long range when they appeared. The Orc crossbowmen needed to move well into the bow range to return fire, and even then it was mostly ineffective since the adventurers had crenelations to hide behind when the Orcs did fire.

  Eddie noticed an Orc in amidst the Orcish missile troops that was wearing what he thought of as shaman regalia. When it looked like the Orc started chanting, Eddie loosed an Arcing arrow at him. He wasn't the only one who had noticed the shaman either, even before Eddie's arrow hit, the shaman was struck by an arrow and several more followed right after his.

  The shaman went down without getting off a spell and Eddie wondered if there might be a second one in this wave like there had been earlier. He didn't see any others though and focused his fire on the crossbow Orcs with his regular arrows.

  Once the Orcs made it in farther, Dominic and three other wizards came out from the northeast corner of the wall walk, where they'd been hiding in the completely covered corner where two uprising points of the crenelations met right where the two walls joined. The four wizards launched spells one after the other. The first was apparently an earth mage like Tamshir, who wasn't present at the moment. His spell caused a swirl of dust and other lightweight objects to sweep through the Orcs.

  Dominic followed with the next cast, detonating his new fireball right above the Orcs head. It ignited the swirling debris as well as the Orcs themselves in many cases. While they burned, the third wizard stepped out and cast some spell that had liquid raining down on the Orcs, Eddie was worried it was going to put out the flames until he saw the results. Whatever liquid was raining down was also flammable and the remaining fires from Dominic's spell immediately ignited it as it fell.

  The last wizard cast their spell and wind whipped through the attacking Orcs, causing the flames to roar and burn even hotter. By the time the last wizard had stepped back behind cover, half the attacking Orcs were down. A moment later when t
he remaining wizards opened up with single target spells and the archers resumed their attack, the rest of the Orcs fell also.

  Eddie sort of expected the crossbow Orcs to flee at that point. They had several dead themselves and the entire attacking melee force was now down as well. Instead, the crossbow Orcs slung their crossbows, pulled out shortswords, and raced in.

  They were met by the melee forces of the adventurers, who had reopened the portcullis when they saw what was happening. Not wanting to be left out, they raced around the walls and took the crossbow Orcs under attack. Those Orcs lasted less time than the attacking melee ones had. With light armor and short weapons, the crossbow Orcs fell to the adventurers like wheat to a scythe.

  Eddie started counting before the bodies could be looted and disappear. He came up with a rough count of sixty, which was what he'd been expecting if the progression hadn't changed from Aaron's meddling. He shot a quick message off to Aaron, telling him just that, then got down to a bit of looting himself.

  The only decent equipment he'd gotten recently was from Karl, who'd gotten it from the Orcs that were attacking now, so Eddie had hopes of finding something else useful. Even when they'd taken down Rotthorpe, he'd left his share of the equipment with the goblins so they could resize it and use it themselves since none of it was much good for him. His coin stash had been growing though, he'd taken his share of coins from all of the different encounters he'd been in.

  This time he found a studded leather gorget, neck protection which he'd been sorely lacking. He also dropped an ample handful of copper and silver coins into his inventory. By his estimation, he'd just tucked away enough coins for someone to stay at his inn for a week, including meals and drinks.

  Somewhere in the middle of the looting his vision went out again and the message 'Wave 8' flashed in front of it. This time he noted the time on his game clock so he'd know exactly when the next attack would occur.

  In general, the armor on these attacking Orcs is better than what we found on the ones in Rotthorpe and I think Charles said that that stuff was about average for what you found on the Orcs in the mountains. So where are these guys from? Are they spawned just for these waves or are there Orcs like this someplace nearby in the game? The better armor would make it worthwhile to check out the area they came from if they are, Eddie thought.

  By this time everyone was done with looting and the bodies had disappeared. Eddie followed along with the adventurers as they left to head back to the inn. He stared at the rutted trail leading to the castle walls, avoiding the deeper ruts as he walked.

  Gonna have to do something about that, he thought. Probably not until all the materials are here though, otherwise it'll just get like this again. I wonder if Tamshir would find it beneath her to level this road out, or maybe I should start experimenting with cobblestones up here? If we figure it out on the path to the castle, it'll be a lot easier to do the roads later on.

  “Hey, Eddie,” Karl said. “You got that look again. I suggest you don't start any new projects until you've gotten these Orcs off your back.”

  “Yeah well, I'd rather think of new projects than think of the fact that the next wave is going to be around seventy Orcs, if I'm right, and come at three in the morning. That's just wrong.”

  Karl chuckled for a moment.

  “Heh, makes perfect sense to me. If you're really trying to screw someone up, hit them at every hour of the day at one time or another, sooner or later you'll find out the time when they react most poorly.”

  “Yeah, but it's still just wrong, damn it! I'm going to have to take another freakin' nap if I want to be alert during the attack. I feel like I'm a toddler again, being put down for naps, even if it is my own choice. Plus, I don't know how many of the adventurers are going to want to participate in this next attack, especially at that time of night, or morning, or whatever it is.”

  Karl smirked.

  “You really do go to bed every night long before everyone else, don't you? There are normally adventurers drinking in the inn until almost dawn. Do you think three in the morning means anything to them? Besides, didn't Charles say he and his group were going to skip this attack so they could get enough sleep to be fine for the next one?”

  “He did,” Eddie admitted grudgingly, “but just his group and ours aren't enough.”

  “You might be surprised,” Karl said. “We did pretty well in Rotthorpe.”

  “That was a totally different layout where we got to hit them from the flank and from behind. Here it's straight out defense and the walls aren't even finished yet.”

  “They might be by then,” Karl said, gesturing.

  Eddie looked up to the masons traipsing up the road towards the castle as a unit.

  “Don't worry Mayor Eddie, sir,” the lead mason said. “We'll get as much more of those crenelations done as we can. We were told to expect another attack by early morning, so we'll just work through the night until you arrive to defend. The carpenters are coming along in a bit also, to put in those other wall walks. They had to go get the materials first though.”

  Eddie blinked. He'd thought that the masons were going to still be on the temple grounds right now. Evidently, they were braver than he'd given them credit for.

  And the carpenters as well? Maybe just our two groups would be able to hold, but I don't want to find out the hard way. I'll ask Charles. If he's planning to be in the next attack, maybe he's made plans for it. Plus I'm sure some of the adventurers will come along. Get a solid core of missile troops and we'd be golden, unless the attack brings in something bigger than a battering ram this time, Eddie thought.

  When Eddie got back to the inn, Charles was still asleep.

  Which is a great idea, I'll ask Tiana to get me up at midnight, that should give me a few hours of solid sleep.

  In the end, it was Helga who came to wake him and Tiana both since the priestess had chosen to nap with him. Helga was smiling as Eddie dragged his ass out of bed.

  “Happy about something?” he asked.

  He was a little grumpy from the way his sleep schedule had been jerked around, but her smile wasn't something he was used to, even with her working at the inn he hadn't seen a smile like this on her face.

  “Yes sir, I'm off work, so I get to go spend some time with my man.”

  Crap, is she still seeing Geirvaldr or is it someone else? Well, worst that happens is that I put my foot in my mouth.

  “So, how are things with Geirvaldr?” he asked.

  She blushed.

  “Quite well, sir. He treats me like no-one did before, and he makes sure that no-one disrespects me any more either. He told them what really happened to me, said it was a vision from the gods that showed it to him, and then beat down the two who tried to argue about it.”

  “I'm guessing those were some of Arvid's relatives?” he asked.

  “I wouldn't know sir, but I think at least one of them was a friend of Arvid.”

  “Imagine that,” Eddie said, sarcastically. “Don't worry Helga, Liv told me the truth about all that, long before I hired you on.”

  Her smile, which had been faltering, returned to full.

  “For which you have my thanks, even if Liv's running stuff now, you're still the owner here and have final say on who she has working for her.”

  “Liv's judgment has been good enough that I won't cross her without a really good reason,” Eddie said. “Anyhow, off to your man. You don't want to keep him waiting and it looks like you'd prefer to not wait either.”

  Helga blushed even darker now, but she nodded and darted out of the door and down the hall.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Eleven

  “Alright guys, so that's the vote? We stick with Eddie through whatever this Orc invasion thing is?” Cooper asked.

  He got a series of nods and thumbs up from the others in the party.

  “Yeah, that dude's got his priorities straight,” Campbell said. “I was chatting with people and before he showed up this was evi
dently a pretty dead area. No inn, lousy shop, hardly anything going on. But he hit two of the three important things to take care of. Wine, women, and song. Well, at least beer, ale, or some of the stronger spirits he has, not much wine really.”

  Campbell paused, his eyes taking on a distracted look for a moment before continuing.

  “He didn't actually provide the women either, I suppose? But the inn's a hell of a lot better place for an assignation than a tent, you know? As for song? Only if you like singing drunks, but you can't have everything, can you?”

  Cooper groaned and shook his head.

  “Hey, are you sure you're cleared for words like 'assignation'?” Ferring asked, nudging Campbell in the gut with an elbow.

  Then he turned to Cooper.

  “Yeah, definitely. Those Orcs are good experience for us, well over our level so we get a lot. Plus, we get to fight from behind fixed defenses? Those stone walls of his are coming along nicely. Word is that they're just the outer defenses for a small castle he's going to put in there too. Sounds like staying on Eddie's good side is a smart choice.”

  Bob held out his hands, palms facing away from himself, in mock surrender.

  “You won't get any argument from me. I'm pretty sure you can guess which goddess I'm worshiping in game and Tiana is really tight with Eddie. Hell, I'm pretty sure Freyja herself likes him too, which is just kinda weird, but whatever. We back him.”

  One by one, the rest of the group voiced their support for sticking with Eddie, summarizing their own reasons they'd talked out before Cooper made the call.

  “Okay then, why don't we go check out the walls. The masons were going fast and the carpenters were headed up that way the last time I saw them. I'm just wondering if maybe we can toss in some surprises to even the odds. The Orc groups attacking just keep getting larger, so we could use some force multipliers if at all possible,” Cooper said.

  They headed north along the road. That castle was only about a twenty minute walk at normal speed so it was a quick trip. When they got there the masons were finishing up the crenelations on the last of the walls, the carpenters were putting in the stairs for the last wall walk, and a tall solidly built adventurer was wandering the fields to the northeast of the castle.