Aveyad flinched at Talia’s words. What is she thinking? She surely could not be considering abandoning the mission to go chasing footprints? It was foolhardy. The others, equally displeased, argued the same.
Talia closed her eyes and waited for them to subside. When quiet fell again, she pulled out two communication crystals from her cloak. “Aveyad and I are the only two that can use these. One of us will need to accompany the rangers to communicate the threat once it is found.” She looked at Aveyad, her expression devoid of its usual mockery. “For all of Aveyad’s talents, he lacks the stamina to keep up with the rangers. It will have to be me.” She scanned their unconvinced faces. “If the three of us travel hard and fast, we can locate the hostile force and return to the main party before you reach the dungeon.”
The corporal frowned, though he did not disagree. The captain tightly clenched his beard. He too looked unwilling to thwart Talia further. Both turned to Aveyad, perhaps hoping he could talk sense into Talia.
Aveyad chewed on his lip. “Why not contact Crota and get them to send out another party to track the ogres? It seems the simplest solution.”
The corporal shook his head. “There aren’t any other mountain rangers at Crota right now.” He looked to his men. “Alok also spoke true. There are few better trackers than Elias. It will take the citadel at least a day to redeploy a team from elsewhere, and another day for the team to find the tracks—if they even could. By then the trail will have gone cold. No, if we want to follow the tracks, it’s best we do it now while the team is on hand.”
Aveyad nodded, accepting the corporal’s expertise. Captain Thadeak butted in, “We should still contact Crota, and let them know our plans.”
Talia rounded on him. “And tell them what, exactly? That we suspect a sizeable ogre force to be moving in Crotana but we don’t have any details? That we will contact them when we have more information?” She held up the communication crystals. “Remember, these have finite charges. Every needless message we send is one less we have available for emergencies.”
She lowered the crystals, and pierced the dwarf with a venomous look. “Or did you mean for Aveyad and myself to call and beg Zarr for instruction?” Aveyad suspected that was exactly what the dwarf meant, but the captain was wise enough not to own up to the fact.
Talia swept her eyes over all of them, her gaze lingering on Aveyad a touch longer than the rest—as if her message was for him alone. “We are champions. Do not forget. It is to make hard choices we are chosen.”
The captain wilted under Talia’s admonishment while Aveyad let it wash over him. He understood, though did not agree, with her unspoken rebuke. Rash action did not equate to decisive leadership. Nor was his own caution born of fear of making difficult decisions. She was being hasty, he believed. His jaw set, he asked, “And if you don’t make it back in time—or at all—how then do we tackle the dungeon with only a party of three?”
Talia met his eyes, gaze sombre. “If we don’t make it back, then you must take on three new vassals from the captain’s men and attempt the dungeon with them.”
Aveyad blanched. What she suggested was outrageous... But he didn’t know why he was surprised. Talia always had little respect for rules. Even Zarr’s most ironclad ones. His expression closed and he offered no further objection. It was clear her mind was made up, and no amount of arguing was going to change that.
As for her preposterous notion that he take on vassals to attempt the dungeon, he would cross that bridge when he got there.
✽✽✽
The three left the same night, travelling without packs. Their rations were stored in Talia’s inventory—the extradimensional storage space all advanced players had. To speed their journey even further, Talia boosted their movement and vigour with her invigorating aura.
Talia has cast invigorating aura (radius: 25m, buff: invigorated, duration: until deactivated).
Talia, Elias, and Alok are invigorated (+25% stamina regeneration, +25% movement speed). This ability will be deactivated if the players enter combat.
Under the aura’s influence, the trio would be able to maintain a relentless pace for days with minimal sleep. That, however, was at the cost of Talia’s essence. As long as Talia maintained the aura, her essence would be continuously depleted until she could no longer channel divine magic—not without extended rest first. It was a risk, but one Talia felt comfortable with, given that this was only a scouting mission.
Travelling light and under the aura’s influence, the trio would cover twice as much distance as the dwarven heavy infantry could manage in a day, and Talia fully expected to rejoin the expedition before it reached the dungeon.
Lost in thought, Aveyad watched the three disappear into the darkness. The mission had quickly turned complicated. A far cry from his expectations, and now he had deep misgivings about what awaited them in the dungeon. Even if Talia and the rangers returned in time, given their poor choices, could he trust them? With these troubling thoughts, he turned back to his pallet, to get what rest was to be had.
✽✽✽
The next morning, the company broke camp early. With Talia gone, Aveyad was in charge—nominally, at least. He saw no reason to change Talia’s previous plans. If anything, given Ranger Elias’ sightings or not sightings—Aveyad was still not sure if he believed the ranger’s report—and the party’s subsequent split made Aveyad more anxious to reach the dungeon.
He was still shocked at Talia’s choice. She always had a reckless streak. He did not buy that an enemy force roamed the mountains. Where would it have come from? And how would it have slipped by unnoticed?
He ground his teeth. Just thinking on it made him livid. But there was no use worrying further. He had bigger concerns—such as how he was going to conduct a dungeon dive with half the party missing.
Aveyad looked up. The company was assembled and ready to depart. He discarded the remains of his morning coffee and creaked to his feet. After the midnight disturbances, he had gotten little rest, which had soured his mood further. “Captain,” he called. “Let’s move out. And along the way, lets discuss which of your men is suitable for a dungeon dive.”
✽✽✽
Loral and Kroz shivered in the brisk mountain air. It was the morning after they had first spotted the enemy column. Scouting—especially of forces suspected to contain champions—was a tricky business. It was hard to know what detection capabilities the enemy possessed. Sometimes, no matter how well concealed your position, the enemy found you out.
For this critical endeavour, Loral and Kroz had been particularly conservative in their approach. Instead of directly scouting the enemy, they had chosen to lie in wait along the convoy’s expected line of march, hiding on a ledge so remote that even a master sentinel would not detect them.
Now they waited.
At some point close to midnight the enemy had stopped and camped for the night. In the early hours of the morning they had resumed their journey, and any minute now, the two scouts expected to catch sight of the Crotans again.
Right on cue, came the tramp of marching feet that heralded the enemy’s approach. The two huddled down—unnecessarily, given that they were too far away to be spotted—and prepared to tally the enemy’s numbers.
✽✽✽
Hours later, the saurian scouts hissed with relief as the tail of the enemy company disappeared north. Their mission was a success. The two had counted out the Crotan’s numbers and determined their composition.
It was time to contact their commander through the communication crystal. They had been given the priceless crystal for emergencies, but Loral had never expected to use it. He marshalled his weak magical talent, the primary reason he had been selected for this mission, and activated the crystal.
An image of Misteria’s senior champion sprang to life before the two scouts. He was still aboard his ship. In the background Loral made out the wild spray of roiling seas. “Yes? What is it?” asked Meryl brusquely.
&nbs
p; “Lord,” hissed Loral, “Crota is sending supplies north with a company of dwarven heavy infantry.”
Meryl nodded, seemingly unsurprised by the information. “Any champions with them?”
Loral hesitated. Champions had no distinguishing physical marks and could be difficult to recognise. Scouts like Loral relied upon detailed physical descriptions that each demesne kept on the champions of their enemies. Descriptions that were painstaking to memorise. None of the Crotans in the enemy column matched the information he had been given but, the human’s dress, and the deference paid to him by the others marked him as a possibility. “One, I think, Lord.”
“You think?” asked Meryl sharply.
“I could not be sure, Lord,” said Loral. He flicked out his forked tongue nervously and described the human mage he had seen at the head of the column. “His profile does not match any of the known Crotan champions, Lord.”
Meryl’s brow drew together as he considered the unexpected information. He turned to his left and conversed with someone out of sight of the communication crystal. After a lengthy wait, he turned back to Loral. “You did well, soldier. I will redirect a company to deal with the Crotans. Until then, track the enemy’s movements and inform me of any changes.”
“Your will, Lord.”
Chapter 4
30 Jan 1850 AB: Day Five
The kingdom of Crotana is the domain claimed by Eld, creator of the Game. The kingdom lies in the far northern reaches of the world. Protected by the Skarral mountains, the Elder Forests, and the Black Sea, it is considered one of the most defensible regions on the continent. Crotana’s capital city, Crota, nestled in the foothills of the mountain range, is believed impregnable. —Johlya Seerixa, naturalist.
The journey north was troubled. For five days, Aveyad had pushed the company hard and made up the better part of a day in the process. Tomorrow, he expected they would reach the dungeon. Yet he remained worried.
Talia had not contacted him despite their agreement that she would do so every three days. Today was the fifth day. He decided he would give her until tomorrow morning. If she did not make contact by then, he would have some difficult decisions to make.
Talia’s silence was not the only matter that gave Aveyad cause for concern. Both rangers had been unsettled during the journey north. Whether scouting or marching alongside the dwarven company, Galian and Lera had repeatedly run troubled gazes over the surroundings.
Something tickled at the edge of their senses, something they could not clearly identify or even be certain existed. Several times, Aveyad had scryed the range in an attempt to identify the source of the rangers’ disquiet. But his scrying was too weak and the amount of territory to cover, enormous. In the end, he gave it up as an impossible task.
Not so the rangers. Lera was adamant that they were being followed, and Galian, while less sure, agreed with her. Aveyad had probed the two as to the source of their unease, asking if they believed it to be ogres or something else, but the rangers had not been able to give him any answers. He had been inclined to chalk up the matter to their distress over their missing companions, and dismiss the affair entirely. Especially when Galian requested permission to conduct extended scouting forays at night, while the rest of the party camped. He had almost refused, but in the end, trusting the rangers’ judgement, had reluctantly agreed.
For the first few nights it seemed as if he had made the wrong decision. At each day’s end, when the company settled down for the night, Lera and Galian had set out and searched the surrounding ranges for signs of their phantom follower. And every dawn, as the company broke camp to resume its march, the pair had returned, disheartened and exhausted, with nothing to show for their night’s work.
Despite this, Lera and Galian had persisted in their efforts. They had taken to catnapping in turns during the day, one sleeping while the other scouted out the company’s route. Several times, Aveyad had almost put a stop to it, fearful that other threats may go missed as a result of the pair’s exhaustion, but each time he was swayed by the rangers’ obvious expertise and conviction.
And on the fifth night, the pair proved his trust well-founded.
✽✽✽
Lera and Galian had scoured the company’s backtrail for four full nights and still had naught to show for it. Even Galian had begun to doubt there was anything to find. Lera, though, had spent all her life in these mountains and knew, just knew, something tailed them.
Every morning when she and Galian returned to camp, she could see the doubt and disappointment on the champion’s face. Aveyad had always seemed on the tip of ordering them to stop but he never did. For which Lera was grateful. Tonight, Lera promised herself. Tonight, they would prove the champion’s trust had not been misplaced.
“Where do you want to begin?” asked Galian. He always left the choice to her. Of the two of them she was the better tracker. If only Elias was here, she wished. Whatever else he was, the elder ranger was a superb scout.
“I think,” she replied, “we have to range farther afield tonight.” Galian cocked his head, and waited for her explanation.
“I have been thinking,” she said. “The last few nights we have searched round the company’s perimeter—exhaustively—and found nothing. I don’t care how good our stalker is at hiding, we should have found something, the hint of a spoor at least. We are good enough scouts to have uncovered that much. Yet we found nothing.”
Galian’s ears fluttered in confusion, “I’m not following you. Are you saying we were wrong?”
Lera shook her head. “No, I’m saying we’ve been searching in the wrong place. That whatever is tracking us is doing so from farther away than we thought.” She pointed out a distant peak to the company’s rear. “My guess is we should start there.”
Galian’s eyes tracked Lera’s finger to where it pointed. The peak in question was miles distant from the company’s location but had an uninterrupted view of the convoy. “Nothing that lives in the range could track us from that distance,” he assessed.
Lera shrugged. “Then maybe whatever it is, is not from the range.”
Galian pursed his lips, troubled by the thought. If something could track the convoy from that far out, then the peak Lera selected would make an ideal lookout post. “Let’s go then.”
✽✽✽
Hours later, with half the night gone, the two still had nothing to show for their efforts. Working systematically, they had spent the last few hours combing the mountain. The pair had searched every conceivable nook and look-out post on the way to the top—to no avail. There was only one more spot to investigate. The peak itself.
Galian, with Lera trailing him, inched his way up, cloaked in stealth and with every sense extended. If there was something here, Galian was counting on Lera to find it. Her perception and detection skills were unusually high, even for a ranger.
They were almost to the top when their prey spooked. Galian’s ears pricked up at the soft scrape of a boot. A Game message followed hard on its heels.
Lera’s eagle eye has detected Kroz, a level 43 saurian scout. Kroz’s stealth has failed.
Galian stared wide-eyed at the saurian scout that materialised less than three feet from him. The saurian had almost passed Galian when his misstep caused his stealth to fail. Looking equally shocked, the scout fumbled for the knives at his belt.
Galian did not give the saurian a chance to draw them. He unhooked his axe in one smooth motion and quickly closed the distance between them. Behind him, Galian sensed Lera leap onto an overlooking boulder and draw her bow.
Galian chopped at the scout. The saurian was fast. Even caught unawares and weaponless he nearly dodged the descending blade. Launching off muscular haunches, the saurian tried to swing away but mid-leap was clipped and brought to ground by Galian’s axe.
Galian has hit Kroz for 60 damage (slashing). Remaining: 370 / 430 HP. Kroz’s lizard’s jump has failed.
The saurian recovered quickly. Not attempting to regain
his feet, the scout slithered away. His four limbs worked in concert and propelled him out of Galian’s reach before the ranger could pin him down.
Kroz has activated lizard’s crawl. Movement speed increased by 100%.
In a blink the saurian was out of Galian’s range and nearly escaped. But he had forgotten Lera. From out of the gloom, Lera’s arrow flew unerringly to its mark and ripped through the scout’s throat. An almost impossible shot.
Lera’s focused shot has killed Kroz with a vital strike.
The saurian’s body, still twitching, slid to a stop. Galian met Lera’s gleaming eyes. They had done it. They had found their stalker.
✽✽✽
Aveyad stared down at the corpse. A saurian. The scout was dressed in nondescript leathers and bore no distinguishing marks, but was assuredly one of Misteria’s. While saurians could be found throughout Myelad, Misteria’s island kingdom was a key stronghold of theirs. And of all Crotana’s foes, Misteria was the one with the most reason to send her scouts here.
He looked up at Galian and Lera. They had dragged the corpse all the way back to camp as proof—something he had berated them for doing, unnecessary as it was. But the two elves had felt the need to provide unassailable proof.
“Was he alone?” Aveyad asked.
Galian shrugged. “He was the only one we found, but that is not to say there aren’t more of them out there. It’s a big mountain.”
Aveyad scratched at his chin worriedly. What did this mean? Have Misteria’s forces already landed? No, if that was the case, the citadel would have warned them. What then were the island kingdom’s scouts doing so far into Crotana? He looked back at the rangers. “Well done Galian and Lera. Go get some rest while you can. Tomorrow we reach the dungeon,” he gestured to the corpse, “and we will have to be more on guard than ever.”
Lera and Galian saluted tiredly and walked off to seek their beds. Aveyad turned to Thadeak, who had received the rangers’ report with him. “What do you think, Captain?”
Dungeon Dive Page 5