Illaria and Alvec
The academy had done one better than gift Illaria a scroll of sending. No, they had set her up with a minor artifact, an orb of scrying and speaking, Allowing her to communicate with her commanding officer at any distance. She didn't have a lick of spellcasting talent, so she required someone to stay with her and tune it to the correct person. It took a few times, as it zeroed in on other people with the same name, but eventually, it zeroed in on the correct commodore Cal Clatterback.
"Illaria reporting in. I'm currently in Sha-Laial, on the shore leave you granted. That said, I am contacting you to ask if there is anything I need to rush back for?"
"Illaria, I can't see you at all, so you're at an academy. Did you say Sha-Laial?”
"Yes sir, I did be saying Sha-Laial."
"Huh, that's a strange twist of fate. Short answer: I want you to stay in Sha-Laial. You'll know why soon enough. As for if there are any campaigns in the planning stages. None so immediate that I need you to head back yet. News already reached us through the Red Banner that Cellocht gifted you a magic item. Congratulations."
"Alright, I'll stay here, I guess," said Illaria. "I assume I'll be finding out the reason why shortly, correct?"
"A few days at most, I reckon. Anyway, now that you've been granted an extension on your shore leave, try to enjoy some of it. All work and no play doesn't make for a sharp soldier when they get called back. Signing off Illaria."
"Thank you, and take care, sir," she said, saluting him despite his inability to see her.
The group met back up and exchanged notes. Mavec informed them what Kaavas could mean, but it wasn't a big revelation. Despite being helpful information, it wasn't enough to reveal how they should focus their research. They'd just have to wait until something else caught their attention. Or perhaps this would be so far in Vato's future that they'd never need to worry about it—a possibility Mavec brought up repeatedly.
Oh, how Alvec wished he could believe that. Finally, with nothing seemingly urgent to be done, it was time for him to hole up in his room and begin his enchanting work. Naya had paid him in advance for the enchantments on her weapons, and Alvec had some work he wanted to do on his gear. His mithril buckler needed to be enchanted badly. It would help him deal with threats more effectively. It would take him at least four or five days, relatively uninterrupted, to get these weapons where he wanted them—the days passed quietly while he and Rem worked on the weapons—returning them to Naya each night when he'd completed as much work as he could on them.
After a few days, he sent Rem to fetch Naya as he set up in the courtyard. The best way to show off the enchantment was to give her a target and a baseline. He set three scimitars on the table; hers lay on one side, and a brand new but unenchanted one lay at the far left. He'd set up some planks of wood dug into the ground. Rem and Echo had more than a bit of fun helping out with digging for this project.
"What's all this about?" She asked, looking at the poles sticking out of the ground. "Are we building something?"
"Nope, take a swing with this first sword," he said as he pointed to the new sword. She grudgingly took the blade and gave a good slash at the wooden beam. It bit in, leaving a small gouge despite knowing she'd hit it harder than that. "Alright, now try yours out." She set the new sword down and looked at her father's scimitars. They seemed to glow faintly, a light green hue. She picked it up and ran forward, slicing again at the piece of wood. Her footing was off, and she expected the cut to do nothing. Instead, it slid much further into the wood plank than her previous slice.
"Whoa, you weren't kidding when you said you'd strengthen my swords."
"The enchantment translates speed into striking power. Should work out well for you."
"Thanks; you sure you don't want me paying full price for these?"
"We've been over this before; I'm not making these for the money. The better our gear, the more likely we live through any bullshit we come across. Greed now could mean an early death later. I'm not a fan of that idea."
"You finish up everyone else's stuff yet?" Naya asked.
"Yeah, I've got Bait's gun ready. Found an enchantment to make his black powder more reliable. Shouldn't fail as often anymore."
"That sounds good; Mavec ask for anything?"
"No, he spent all his money upgrading Piccora, gearhead that he is."
"And Illaria?"
"Just a simple upgrade to her sword and her cloak. Hardly took me a day."
"What about your gear?" She asked.
"Just two things this time... I may have spent too much gold to contact my grandfather the other day. Else, I could have maybe made two of these." Alvec pulled out an ordinary-looking dagger that faintly glowed with some arcane symbols. A lightning bolt and a hand seemed faintly etched in glowing blue light on the blade.
"Oh? What exactly is it?"
"A dagger of spell storing. Think of it like a rechargeable wand that can only hold a single charge. I can choose to let the spell loose whenever I connect."
"How often is that going to happen?" Naya asked.
Alvec frowned at her. "You realize I'm in pretty decent shape, right? So long as I'm supporting someone by targeting the same enemy, I think I've got a fair chance, and it was cheap enough for a backup weapon."
"Fair point; you're a bit faster than Mavec, after all. I can see you scoring a hit here or there." Naya said in agreement. "Still planning to make something for the church?"
"Nah, not right now," Alvec said as he shook his head. "They haven't tried to cause us any problems for the moment, so I'd say we're in the clear and don't need to enact project bribe them with magic items."
"That's good, at least," said Naya. "Glad you figured out a way to combat the stench from Bait's room. It was starting to become unbearable."
"I'll never understand goblins, but a combination of wind spells and a charcoal filtration system seems to be doing the trick well enough," said Alvec. "You only get a whiff of his foulness whenever he opens the door. I've also enchanted the door to shut firmly behind him. So hopefully, it's just a whiff, and it's over with before the stench can spread."
Naya stayed in the training yard, testing out her new blades. They did cut like magic. She focused on calling up the well of power within herself, boosting her speed further. She could easily get even deeper into the wood—a resounding success.
Illaria found herself at the bar chatting with the muscle angel again. "I've had a few people reach out about the job posting you guys made. When do you want me to set up interviews for it?"
She sat at the bar nursing an ale. "I was thinking we might as well be interviewing them on the same day. Why don't we settle for the last day of the week." Illaria said.
"That sounds good to me; I'll relay that to the applicants next time they're in," he said.
"You happen to have any sea-faring merchants through here lately?" She asked. "Perhaps other members of the Blue Banner army?"
"Not too often, to be honest. More riverboats than seaboats here in Sha-Laial. Why do you ask anyway, Illaria?"
"Well, I might as well be telling you. My parents were abducted during a pirate attack. I joined the Blue Banner, hoping I'd find them somehow. Hasn't panned out yet. So I ask from time to time when I meet a merchant or other sea-faring travelers."
"Next drinks on me, friend," he said, as he poured another and slid it in front of her. "You give me a good enough description, and perhaps I can ask around when I have that sort come through here."
"That's mighty kind of you," Illaria said, taking another good sip of her ale.
"Any particular band of pirates responsible?" he asked.
"It was Cutthroat Crowley."
The muscle angel let out a long whistle. "Well, that explains why you think they're alive. He's known for being ruthless but pragmatic. He certainly wouldn't be killing them off. You seem to be rolling in a good amount of gold; why not go to the academy and get the head of divination to just search for them?"
"Well," sighed Illaria." Until recently, I thought the kind of gold needed for that sort of thing would be beyond my ability to earn. It's certainly a thing I will be giving a lot more thought to now that we're earning a lot more money than I ever expected to see. But what if I put my every last copper into it and then nothing? What if I'm wrong, and they were killed off years ago? If I spent my last coin just to discover that, I don't know how I'd recover from that."
"I mean, it would be devastating news," he said. "You'd survive, though. Hell, you've already lived through this awful experience. Why couldn't you live through more?"
"I don't know; it just feels devastating. It's been hard enough to lose them, and I still have hope that they are out there and alive. To discover they aren't, that all the hope I'd been holding onto was false. There's only so much devastation a person can suffer, right?"
"You're selling yourself short, the way I see it," he said. "You've got your comrades in the Blue Banner and your friends here in Sha-Laial. You might need to lean on them, and perhaps more than a little bit of ale or wine, but you're made of stronger stuff than you're giving yourself credit for."
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Illaria gave them a description and headed off after the second glass of ale. The night passed peacefully as everyone settled in with their new gear.
It wasn't till late in the wee hours of the pre-dawn morning that the alarm spell went off.
Alvec rolled out of bed, slipped on his boots, grabbed his shield, cast a defensive spell around himself, and rushed to the window. He flung the window open as wide as possible and leaped through it. It was only a twenty-foot fall, and the boots' magic mitigated almost all of it.
Emerging from the roiling water's surface was a giant crab. It easily stood about twelve feet tall and had pincers that looked large enough to snap the tiefling in half. Their shells were a perfectly normal ruddy orange coloration. Alvec breathed a sigh of relief. While fighting giant crabs wasn't exactly something he expected to do, it at least wasn't some horrid flesh abomination. The last thing he needed was a crab-like creature. He could hear the sounds of the group rallying together from his open window. With his shield enchanted, it rarely made sense to cast spells that enhanced it, as the magic was only marginally more potent than the enchantment itself, but seeing another giant claw emerge from the water's surface convinced him to go for every bit of defense he could. The edge of his shield seemed to elongate with the same ghostly blue energy as his arcane armor spell; with that said, he took a defensive position and waited for them to approach.
Surely enough, both creatures noticed him and converged on his position, quickly skittering at him. They both reached out for him, attempting to clamp him, but found no purchase. He was too quick and too well-shielded for their claws to touch. Granted, focusing on defense as he was for the moment, there was nothing more he could do but keep dodging until they eventually got lucky. No matter how good the defense, if you repeated an attack enough times, eventually, it would swing just right, or he'd dodge just wrong. All the protection he had prepared would mean very little if all it had to do was keep squeezing. Not that he didn't have a contingency for that, too, but he'd much rather not lather himself in grease.
Illaria and Echo were the first two to emerge from the tower. Illaria's wakizashi was already in hand as she charged out to see Alvec beset on both sides by giant crabs. It was not the strangest thing she had seen in her stint on the ocean, but this wasn't the ocean. The favored animal of the spirit, Shoalsatta, didn't belong this far inland, especially not at that size.
She and the wolf ran in unison and moved to attack the one on Alvec's left. The sensation of entering his force field was still something that she was getting used to. As she took her position, the air felt heavy around her, almost solid. The crabs were still too focused on Alvec and ignored the newcomers. A mistake. Illaria thrust her sword through one of the leg joints, eliciting a feral hiss. Echo's teeth clamped down on another leg, and he tried unsuccessfully to shake it to the ground. Mavec, Naya, and Bait emerged from the house, too, but they were much further behind than Illaria and Echo. Even with their weapons drawn, they couldn't strike the crabs before they again tried to clamp down on Alvec.
Alvec dodged again, staying just out of their reach. Illaria tried to bring her sword to parry, but the crab was too quick. It clamped down on her shoulder, and she cried out in pain. It nearly held her in place, but she twisted out of its grip just in time. Alvec disengaged, retreating a safe distance back from the action. Mavec released a thunderous lightning bolt, but both crabs moved with alarming speed; neither took more than a mild jolt. Naya rushed forward, landing a single slash as she flanked with Echo. Bait unloaded his bullets, punching holes in the creature's exoskeleton. The one that had been shot skittered forward, risking several blades while reaching for the goblin. Naya again landed a slice, but Alvec and Illaria failed to connect their weapons and spells.
It reached Bait and clamped down; despite his small frame and quick movements, it managed to latch onto him well, hoisting the goblin high into the air and preventing him from reloading. "Stupid crab, you food, not BAIT!"
Mavec fought to suppress a laugh as he searched his memory for the right spell. Finding nothing particularly helpful, he once more focused on the other crab. Sending Piccora forward with a shocking grasp was the smarter course of action. Doing the same on the one Bait was being held by risked electrocuting the poor goblin—a risk he didn't want to take. There was no assurance that more crabs weren't on their way. Killing the only expert with ranged weaponry, who could hole up in the tower and rain death down on them, seemed like a categorically dumb idea. Piccora slammed into the beast, and electricity coursed through it.
Bait tried his best to squeeze free, but he couldn't, and the crab pinched him to the point where he was worried he would be split in two. "HALP!" the goblin screamed as he struggled desperately to free himself. He could imagine it, sliced apart under the floating ribs, goblin entrails crimped by the pressure. Torso and legs separated, with only intestines between them searching for each other. Dis terrible way for goblin to die. Bait always assume he go out in either big boom or after eating one too many cheese.
Alvec sighed; as much as he wanted to do something that felt productive, he needed to do something that was productive. He couldn't just leave Bait as he was, and for the second time in too few days, he regrettably greased the goblin. Bait suddenly slicked with what tasted like butter, slipped through the crab's claws, and plummeted to the ground, where he quickly scurried away. Naya, Illaria, and Echo each attempted to slash or bite at the crab before them. They brought it low between their efforts, and Illaria delivered the killing blow by driving her wakizashi between its eyes.
The crab lashed out again, trying to grab Bait, but Alvec slammed his shield into it, pushing it off target just enough. Bait hurriedly reloaded and quaked like a duck. Alvec took the cue and swooped low as Bait unloaded another few shots into the beast. No longer having to worry about Bait, Mavec aimed and let loose another bolt of lightning. The crab sizzled and steamed under the current of electricity and collapsed.
"Everyone okay?" Alvec called out as a thick fog of steam exploded from the hot spring. It was thicker than any fog Illaria had seen over the seas of the Empire. She could scarcely see her hand held mere inches from her face.
"Everyone stay still and keep your guard up," Illaria shouted. If this was just a strange effect from the hot spring, that would be fine, but if this was directed by something conscious, and it was trying to obscure vision so that they would be easy prey, that was an alarming possibility she couldn't entirely discount.
The fog slowly dissipated, and a strange vision met her. She and the others were not in the material facet.
They were somewhere else. It looked like the same location, but it was wrong. The light here was tinted blue, and the sun seemed to dance far beyond some strange substance. Water was everywhere, spilling between the cobblestones and gently running over most surfaces.
"Are we in the facet of Water?" Naya asked. She didn't know much about the facets, just that they existed.
"No, we'd be drowning if we were," Mavec replied.
"I think we've got to be adjacent to it, though," Alvec replied as he looked around. A sudden roar caught them off guard as a blue dragon-like creature landed upon the pavilion.
"I will possess this place of power," It screamed in Draconic, the language of the dragons. "I will determine who walks between the worlds. For I am a dragon, and you will serve me."
Alvec raised an eyebrow to it. This was not a dragon, at least not an actual dragon. If anything, the creature before them was some drake, one of their lesser kin. They were built more like bats than four-legged dragons. They often lacked the ability to cast magic beyond spewing some sort of elemental breath, and their intellect wasn't much to write home about, either. He cleared his throat before responding in draconic. "Excuse me, oh mighty king, but we'd like to go back the way we came if you wouldn't mind sending us on our way, your lordship." It was a coarse language that hurt his throat to speak. Lots of guttural sounds that were hard for non-dragons to make. He hoped he hadn't fucked up any of the pronunciations.
"Fools, only I get to walk the worlds! You will perish for your trespass," it screeched at him.
"Well, hate to say it, guys, but we're not avoiding a fight," Alvec confirmed before using magic to accelerate most of the group. He excluded Mavec because it was difficult to cast spells faster. Possible but very difficult.
Illaria trusted what Alvec had said and used the increased speed to dash up to the pavilion and climb the ladder. She moved in and struck at it, scoring a grazing wound on its flank. The beast took to the sky and spat out a blob of acid. Bait scrambled to get out of the way of it. The lump of fluid hit the ground and erupted into a hissing cloud of fog, blocking the sky from where Bait stood. It burned against his skin, too. Bait jogged out of the acidic mist and repositioned himself, taking a shot at the dragon.
"I'm out of lightning bolts, guys!" Mavec shouted as he took cover. "Unless it lands, I can't do much for you."
"I think we're all in that same boat!" Illaria said as she weighed the merits of leaping off the pavilion.
"I do have a bow, but I'm shit at using it!" Naya shouted.
"Anything is better than nothing right now," Alvec replied.
"Bait got this; you just protect Bait!" Alvec nodded and rushed up beside him, pulling out the healing wand. He forced magic through it to help top Bait off. He was the only one who could reliably hurt this creature; keeping him up was paramount. More acid rained down on them. Alvec, of course, attempted to dodge as well but quickly found that it wasn't essential for him to do so. The acid was weak enough that his wards were canceling out the damage. Naya switched to her short bow and began launching arrows. As she had indicated, she wasn't all that great with it. While the shots connected, they were only glancing wounds that failed to do much damage to the drake. Concerningly, the drake seemed to disappear even though they had all been looking directly at it. It struck Illaria with its claw as it swept by her. She'd tried to raise her blade, but it had been invisible until the moment before impact, making it hard even to attempt to parry. This creature was dangerous, for sure. Hiding in the fog was making it hard still to hit.
Alvec was out of luck as far as hurting the thing went. His only ranged spell on hand was a necromancy spell designed to weaken foes. Luckily, he caught a glance of it and took aim carefully before releasing the sickly green ray of energy. It struck the drake square in the chest and sapped tremendous strength from the beast, so much so that it was suddenly struggling to keep its weight aloft with its wings. The drake now looked emaciated and starved as it clumsily descended to the ground. The party wasted no time capitalizing on this turn of events. Echo enlarged at Naya's command and quickly grabbed and pinned the drake. It would only take another few moments for Naya and Illaria's combined swordplay to finish off the fake dragon.
The group gathered back up and cleaned off their weapons. Alvec nabbed a few scales and a vial of the drake's blood. Even drakes had uses for alchemical and enchanting purposes, even though they weren't true dragons. He shook his head in disappointment. He had tried to save the creature's life by giving it a gracious way just to let them go. Poor thing had misjudged their strength. A loud voice cried out from above them.
"Begone foul beast, in the name of the Six Strengths, I will vanquish you!" A humanoid creature with crab-like armor and four eye stalks growing out the sides of his head came running out of the tower. They paused when he saw the group recuperating. Mavec waved.
"Hey, we already killed it for you. Unless we're the foul beast, in which case, fuck you," Mavec said while lighting a cigarette and leaning against the tower.
"People from the other side! It's been far too long since I've seen any of you. My though, you don't look to be any of the recruits that I knew. Have you recently joined the Six Strengths?"
"Uh, no, I'm afraid we haven't. We happen to live in the compound they used to occupy," Illaria stated.
"Used to? Are they not still there?" He asked, blinking at us with his strange two-lidded eyes.
"No, I'm afraid not," Alvec replied. "There isn't an easy way to say this, but the Six Strengths are dead. There was a war, and they didn't survive it." The man before them looked defeated as he sat on the ground.
"I considered them comrades. They taught me some of their ways, and I vowed to them to defend this side of the portal from threats that would seek to harm their world."
"We're sorry for your loss," Naya said. "Do you know how we get back to our world?"
"I will drink to their memory tonight. As for how to get out of here, the same way you came in. Use the hot spring."
"Well, we're glad to have you guarding this entryway. We'll do our best to guard our side too," Alvec said, giving a solemn nod. "Perhaps we can stop in every once in a while?" He suggested.
"I'd like that. It is a tad lonely over here."
"Where even is here?" Illaria asked.
"A question better left for scholars than myself, I'm afraid. It is home, this tower is home, the lands beyond appear to be a replica of the world above, but it is also distinctly its own."
"Alright, well, it's been a pleasure, but we should try to get back now, and then we can test later if we can travel back and forth at will," Alvec said. The last thing he wanted was to miss a window of opportunity to get back home and be stuck here for who knows how long. The group rushed back to the pool and took a dip into it. When their heads resurfaced, they found themselves in the world they knew. Alvec let out a sigh of contentment. Everyone pulled themselves from the water. Thanking the fact that the hot spring kept the water within itself rather than drenching them. Alvec reapplied the alarm, and everyone returned to their day-to-day business.