Chapter 16: Rouse the Militia

At dawn the next game day, we made our way to the Military Quarter towards the eastern gate. Fiona had collapsed into bed the second we had arrived back in the tavern and had slept like the dead which gave Fizzle and I a window to log off and take quick comfort breaks of our own. It turned out though that this morning it was incredibly difficult to find the intimidating Sergeant. I spoke to a handful of militiamen and women I recognized from the day Torsgulf gave me my thrashing. Through happenstance, rather than me leading us anywhere in particular, we stumbled into the sand-covered training grounds of my first day. I was surprised to see a handful of blue nameplates mixed amongst the green when I scanned the gathered troops looking for the Sergeant’s tell-tale red skull. I found him bellowing orders not to far from the blue name plates. He noticed me, my companions, and assembled monsters, Stompy safely in his stone rather than the overstimulating environment of the training yard; he’d likely destroy the place if let out, instead Glitters floated nearby. It seemed fine, but up-close I could still see hairline fractures in its prismatic cocoon and the usual dancing waves and balls of light were in had coalesced into a dull yellow orb that pulsed every now and again. The Sergeant gave some orders to the militiaman training the low-level players and stormed towards me. I blinked then recoiled as he closed the distance between us his face darkening like a coming storm. I backed up as he arrived in front of us.

“Was it you three?” He growled eyeing us all in turn, Baruu tried to nuzzle into the man, she liked him for some reason, but Miller pushed her away; she bleated and pranced back to just above my head.

“What did I do?” I yelped at him shrinking before the man, Fizzle snickered from safely behind me as the Sergeant thundered. I looked to Fiona with pleading eyes.

“Hello there,” she said bouncing forward and extending a hand for the Sergeant to shake (she’s such a savage), “I’m Fiona, a companion of Blue’s. He told us you would be able to help us. But first what is the problem and how can we, the Chosen of Lil, help you?”

The Sergeant regarded her for a moment then grunted and seemed to calm down. He looked me up and down then sighed. He turned beckoning for us to follow him and lead us towards the quiet little building the militia used for office space. We descended and entered Sergeant Miller’s room.

“Close the door.” He growled sitting at his desk pulling out a bottle of dark brown liquid and some copper mugs when I acquiesced. He began to pour drinks and it was only after he slid three of the very full mugs of something towards us that he spoke again. “A bunch of my men followed Boyle’s example the other day. The bandits before were a nuisance, but the more capable men that join up with that fool, the more dire the situation becomes. We could end up with a civil war if we don’t put a stop to it. I don’t know what’s gotten into any of them.” He groused taking a drink.

“Oh, I know exactly what they’re thinking.” Fiona told him gently as she placed a series of photographs and the item that took them on the table. The Sargent set down his drink reaching for the first of several.

“What’s this?” He asked as he looked from one picture to another.

“Enough proof for you to act upon. The images of the battle my companions and I took part in the south. Near that fishing village Boyle is holed up in. Those players, the elf, goblin, and human are responsible for Boyle’s new life of crime.” She produced more photos from her inventory and offered them to Miller, he set aside the pictures of us fighting the other players. “As you can see since a few of the NP- people from the docks have broken away it’s likely that these players did this as well.”

“How so?” he asked, leaning back.

“We can infer that the weak-looking Chosen training at the dummies we saw earlier got killed by three high level Chosen,” Fizzle explained after taking a swig from his mug. “You saw us and saw that we were as strong as the island will allow us to get, and as such you jumped to a conclusion even though you didn’t want to believe it of our boy Blue here.”

Well that cleared up one of my questions, so the NPCs were familiar with the level system; I’d had a sneaking suspicion given that Torsgulf had mentioned learning Ki techniques as you levelled. Miller leaned back in his chair and looked visibly relieved, but his expression quickly soured and the imposing, ferocious man suddenly looked tired and old. He drained his cup and slammed it back on the table, I reached for my own and found the cup empty, Baruu belched a boozy burp which in turn collapsed the tension in the room.

“So, I take it the three of you intend to take part in the punitive force we will be sending then?” When we all nodded, he picked up his ornate helm from the desk and began belting his sword to his side retrieving it from where it hung from his chair. “Follow me. Opensky, find Torsgulf. He’s at the southern gate, tell him ‘you were sent to fix the dam’ just in-case anyone is still reporting to Boyle from within the ranks.”

He led us out into the sunny morning, before pausing to clap me on the shoulder. “I’m glad you turned out to be one of the good one’s boy, now get to Torsgulf, I have a job to do and I can’t waste it chin wagging now off with ye.” With that he turned on the spot with practiced efficiency and strode off to have a quiet word with the men and women under him.

We made quick progress to the southern gate, weaving through the few stray carts who were only now arriving in Meadows Edge having braved the bandit-plagued roads between the farming communities and the town. Torsgulf was indeed on duty at the southern gate, blinking sleepily in the growing light. He straightened as we approach and when he realized it was me, (because what other orc was on the island,) he grinned up at me as we jogged close.

“Mornin’,” he nodded to us all in turn, giving Fiona a slightly deeper bow than Fizzle and I. “What are you three up tae then, away tae have another pop at the bandits?” he guffawed “You’ll slaughter them with those levels.”

“No actually,” I looked around feeling dumb as I uttered the given code in a hushed voice to the dwarf. “We’ve been sent to fix the dam.”

“Oh,” the dwarf said apparently not catching-on as he stroked his voluminous braided and heavily ornamented beard. “An’ a suppose ye’ll be wanting me tae come along tae help ye?”

“That’s the plan.” Fizzle informed him, the dwarf nodded then turned and strode the short distance to the squat largely subterranean barracks established at the southern gate. He returned a moment later carrying a maul but not the wooden one he had thrashed me with. This one had a large uneven ovular rock, bound in iron, and mounted on a long iron pole. The dwarf planted the hammer’s butt into the flagstone road.

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“Got me tools, lead the way.” The dwarf told us.

We left through the southern gate following the winding dirt road in a roughly south easterly direction, ascending the gentle hills as we approached the bridge crossing the river that cut off the town from the farming hamlets. We set up in our previous overwatch spot and examined the bridge. So far, aside from the few carts that had made it to the gates as we left, we had encountered no other enterprising peasant NPCs. Much as the first time we had looked over the bridge, the reaching fingers of the forest were still. Torsgulf looked around nervously, fingering the haft of his weapon, he had grown increasingly distressed since leaving the town. I wondered if he was afraid of monsters and as nothing else was going on, I decided to ask him.

“Whit? No! I’m no coward mind, but you Chosen tend to invite trouble.” He harrumphed at us as Fiona and Fizzle snickered.

“There will be plenty of trouble, so here’s the plan; we will engage the players. We’ve just been grinding a dungeon and our teamwork is as good as it can be at this point.” Fiona told him. “We need you to engage with any of the defectors that come after us.”

The dwarf nodded then, after retrieving his gargantuan hammer, began wandering down the river facing slope of the rise we were hiding atop. He whistled as he went, a familiar song from a childhood favourite. Fiona smiled at the dwarf as he left. Fizzle and I looked at each other, shared a bemused look, and followed the cheerful dwarf. We crossed the bridge and were surprised to find no ambush in-wait today. As we searched the woods, all of us looking for a sign of the missing banditry. Fiona was the only one who found any clue, a long-abandoned camp, just vague rectangular impressions in the mulchy forest floor, the clearing of brush and the cold, wet remains of a long dead fire. The treeline went in the rough direction of the small village Boyle and the other players were based. The trees and shrubbery showed signs of passage, unnatural gaps in the dense foliage as though many people had pushed through.

“Doesn’t look like they’re here.” Torsgulf observed, scanning the woods as the others and their monsters wandered through the man-made clearing. “That’s a bad sign.”

“Aye, looks like they’re consolidating power.” Fizzle observed from atop my shoulders.

“That could be a problem, they could throw the low-level bandits at us in waves to tire us out then send the players in to finish us.” I mused aloud, feeling a little foolish listening to these two veterans.

“We shouldn’t need to worry about that. By giving you that pass phrase the Sergeant meant a plan has been set in motion. He’s not a stupid man; he’s been slowly building a presence of militia men in the farming hamlets. They’ve been training the farmers in the basics, much like we did for you and Miss Fiona.” He chuckled darkly leading us in a more south westerly direction, I checked my map to be sure. “He’s already got a small punitive force gathered, when I retrieved Molly here,” he patted the large maul fondly, Fizzle groaned quietly behind me. “I made sure to activate a magic item that sent a short message to the men in the fields as it were. They’ve likely already begun mobilizing to thwart the petty rabble. The farmers are tired of having their goods stolen, they’re ready to fight for their homes and prosperity.”

“We should sneak in then, the players are likely lurking in the background somewhere, they need to keep reassuring Boyle that he’s doing the right thing.” Fiona said striding to join us from the far side of the clearing as we started moving into the tree line. “If we can get past the bulk of their forces we should, in theory, be able to engage them. The goblin is who we need to take down first.”

“I’ll handle that.” Fizzle insisted. “The monsters will take care of themselves and go after their counterparts primarily.

“I’m not going to be using Glitters in this one.” Fiona told us as she brandished her woven wrist piece that held her monster stones. “No doubt Stampy will make himself their main concern in his excitement to meet new monsters.” She smirked. “So, then it’ll be between me and the elf, Blue will you be alright with that sword dude?”

“Dannath?” I shrugged noncommittally but I rolled my shoulders again and stretched a little. “I’ll give it a go, I’ve got new spells courtesy of yourself that could give me an edge, he definitely used Ki abilities against me, but I don’t know about his magic.”

“It’s null.” Fizzle told me, when I didn’t react, he sighed. “I cast a firebolt at him at him when the gobbo ran away like a bitch, it connected, but the fire just washed over him, barely even singed him.”

I felt my heart sink, if Fizzle’s powerful fire magic didn’t do anything much, I doubted I could. As the member of the party with the lowest magic score (I relied more on my Ki techniques unless there was reason to cast) I doubted that I would make much of an impact. It wasn’t that I didn’t like magic, quite the opposite: I was very excited to try out my new spells. I had practiced them to varied effect in the dungeon runs as the monsters became steadily more complex. I just had to hope that some external factors would enhance the efficacy of the spell. If Null magic did as its name suggested and nullified magic or at the very least weakened it, that meant that one, I would have to match him in arms as Fizzle’s and Baruu’s spells would be wasted mana and two, it also meant that when I started messing around with my Slime that I would double up on the Null affinity. Fiona had apparently read the series of expressions that my face went through as I considered the information presented to me.

“He likely hasn’t trained it much, and like you said, he is focusing on a Ki build like your own. And since they can’t leave Boyle alone, I doubt they’ve looted any spell tomes.” When I looked at her balefully, she sighed exasperated. “His Null magic won’t be strong enough to counter your crowd control spells as they affect the terrain, the magic doesn’t deal damage and that’s a big distinction in null magic.”

I nodded my understanding and we continued our way, weaving through the dense and darkening forest as the afternoon departed and the evening settled in. Nervously holding his massive maul, Torsgulf moved closer to me as the shadows deepened, lengthened and the nocturnal monster life began to stir, sing, and cry. Soon the forest yielded to a stretch of road and the curving rocky coastline. The lights of the small fishing settlement could be seen in the distance as the world darkened, thick black plumes of smoke rose from chimneys like black fingers reaching into the bloodied sky. The sun was sinking towards the horizon, its light dancing across the shifting waves. A newly finished ship sat fat and proud astride the sea, the sails rolled up and bound. We were running out of time.

We communicated quickly through the party window, I whispered what transpired to Torsgulf as we darted from one rocky outcropping to another as we closed on the few huts and beached boats that once made up the small village, a series of large scaffolding lead into the water. Presumably this was where the bandits and players had built the ship. We could see a few people rushing around the village; we paused to watch and soon the clamour of metal and screams were carried to my ears on the bitingly cold wind. Numerous NPCs came streaming out of the huddled larger buildings, grabbing their battered and chipped weapons as they ran to reinforce their defenders. I felt a tug at my shoulder, I looked down to see Torsgulf looking up at me a determined look on his features.

“I’m going to find Boyle; the Chosen won’t mess with me while I am stronger than them.” He reassured me. “You three take care of your nefarious counterparts. Good luck, Blue. If we survive this, come see me before you leave.”

“I don’t stay dead for long.” I pointed out with a grim sharp tusked grin, slapping him on the back affectionately. “You make sure you don’t get dead.”

“Pah,” he spat, “Boyle’s a pansy and the boys that went with them are scrubs. Now what is it that you Chosen say? Auch aye! Let’s pown some noobs!”