The days of travel were safe, leading up to the Throne Land. The look of trees and the very dirt of the earth felt different here. Despite the rushing and running waters, the sea breeze seemed stale, almost acrid and stagnant. The dirt was more yellowed than any that Alvec was used to seeing. Much of the Empire had fertile soil, a rich dark color with red clay mixed here and there. No, this soil was a chalky sandy brown that seemed a bit loose beneath their feet. The trees were all deciduous, overtaking what might have once been a pathway through here. It was still possible to follow the trail, but it was far more of a struggle than it should have been.

Following the path as best they could, they eventually stumbled across a small river and water geysers, which erupted into twenty or thirty-foot columns of blistering water. Steam billowed out around them in thick clouds. This sort of geography, while very much native, was also incredibly alien to the group. The coastline, which Illaria and Bait frequented, had nothing to compare this to, and the lands of Alvec’s youth were also devoid of this kind of volcanic activity. Among the blasts of water and along the black stone embankment of this small river, four small pink creatures wearing leather armor walked the beach. Curiously, each had a large black dead snake draped around their neck.

“Kobolds,” Bait hissed in annoyance. Kobolds like Goblins, small and known for mischief. But dey dumb, dey little lizard folks who worship dragons. Dey no know the glory of Dogmother. Stupid Kobold just walk on two legs like goblins, but inferior in everyway. Bait no see any boom booms with them.

“You don’t suppose they’re friendly, do you?” Naya asked as she ducked behind a tree to stay out of sight.

“Bait, go find out!” he said before he stumbled out from the tree line. He scampered towards them and shouted. “Hey, you friends?” As Bait approached them, he realized two of them looked too big. Like they were inflating and deflating with each breath, they were very buff-looking kobolds when their bodies swelled up with air. Not so much when they breathed it out. Looked kinda of scary, almost dead or possessed. Though Bait no see anything else wrong with them. The creatures hissed and drew weapons, charging for the group. Bait took aim with his musket and pulled the trigger. The rounds slammed into the buff kobold charging at him, and they seemed to let out a low whistling sound as they kept moving toward him. “Not Friends!” Bait yelled back to the group. Illaria rushed forward; she unsheathed her wakizashi with one smooth motion and slashed at the kobold charging Bait. It managed to sidestep at the last second, her blade singing by it only centimeters from its skin.

Naya rushed forward in front of Bait, taking a defensive stance. Having worked with Illaria for a while now, she’d noticed something. Illaria was faster than she was. Not necessarily in terms of reflexes but in how much ground she could cover. She was quick as a literal wolf, without the help of any magic. There were spells Naya could cast to do that, but to do so naturally was amazing. Echo could, however, make it all the way to the one Illaria was now engaged with. The wolf did so; he went off to the creature's right side as he had been trained. He snapped his jaws at the kobold, and the tiny thing quickly shifted out of the way.

Energy surged through the air around them; an arcane spell was coming together above Naya and Bait. Both of them dove for the ground as a super-heated cloud of steam erupted around them. The heat burned the back of Bait's nearly bald head. Naya was almost entirely protected against it, her hair shielding her neck. Only the back of her hands burned a bit. The heat from the steam dissipated quickly, but the fog remained. Bait couldn't get a clean shot.

Things had unfolded quickly enough that Alvec hadn’t been able to armor up before the fight. As such, he hung back, gathering his arcane armor around himself. He and Rem ran forward to support Bait as soon as that was done. Mavec also hung back, but he sent Piquora ahead. There were indeed some benefits of having a construct like Piquora. It meant he could hang back and let her do the work. The fog cloud presented a challenge because it completely blocked any view of the combatants in the geyser field. He’d have to chance leaving the cover of the trees if he wanted to contribute anything to the fight. So he did, breaking hard left up the embankment, trying to gain some altitude.

Bait got up from the ground and rushed out of the steam cloud. He took aim at the one Illaria and Echo were fighting and placed a shot at it. It let out another strange hiss and stumbled backward. Moments later, from the fog cloud, two of the kobolds whose bodies seemed larger than they should be swept out of the mist and began trying to claw at Bait. Their claws easily bit into the flesh on his face, leaving long, nasty gouges.

“HELP!” Bait shouted again.

“Little busy right now!” Illaria replied as she took another decisive strike at the kobold before her. It was breathing heavily; no doubt the several shots from Bait had already weakened it considerably. Another good slash or two would likely be all it would take to bring it down. Her blade found its mark, this time biting into its chest. The blood spraying back at her tingled. The creature let out a frenzied howl and swung its claws at her twice. She deftly countered with her blade and, with one clean swoop, brought her sword through the front half of its neck and both of its wrists. The creature fell dead to the ground with one final hiss of steam. “Watch out! Their blood is acidic,” Illaria shouted.

“Unless you or I plan to fight them alone, I think we might just have to deal with it,” Alvec said as he rushed forward and activated his arcane aura. He positioned himself right behind Bait. Ready to intercept at least one attack if the aura wasn’t enough to protect him.

There was nowhere for Bait to run. If he tried to aim his gun, they’d just claw at him anyway. Bait no like being surrounded. If he did nothing, though, he’d allow them to hurt his cheese acolytes longer. That was no good either. Bait decided to shoot; no sense being a coward. He aimed at the one on his right; it took a swing at him, and its claws seemed to move slower. Bait dodged out of the way and pulled the trigger, blasting a bullet into the one on the right. A second set of claws came at his unprotected back. The sound of claws striking metal rang in his ears as Alvec wrapped his tail around Bait’s waist and tugged him backward while Alvec moved forward. Bait reloaded as he got his footing, rinsed, and repeated. The force of the bullet's forward momentum meant that the blood didn’t splash back on him but instead sprayed a steady shower of flecks of acid along the rocky black stone embankment.

Mavec ordered Piquora to rush the one in the backline, the one making everyone's life harder by casting these fog clouds. Piquora closed the distance and slammed into the kobold, drawing blood with its metal incisors. Meanwhile, Mavec took aim and launched a ray of fire at the thing. It hit its mark, searing the creature's chest. Naya joined the fight just before her; she brought both blades at the animal. They bit into them, spraying acid onto her. It burned her hands and her exposed face, but not so much as to slow down her assault.

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Echo came lumbering in, flanking with his master. He snapped his fangs down, catching it in his mouth; he clamped down hard. There was a sickening snapping sound, and the creature went limp in Echo’s mouth. He released his jaws, and it fell dead to the ground. Echo’s tail wagged, and he grinned, tilting his head slightly to the side.

“Good boy, Echo,” Naya cooed at him. Echo was a very good boy. Perhaps the best boy.

Alvec reached out, turning arcane energy into electricity in his open hand; he slammed it into the remaining kobold before him. The energy fried through him with some startling cracking sounds. It wasn't enough to end its life.

Another blast of steam appeared around them, only missing Mavec because he was so far away. Echo leaped entirely out of the steam before it could penetrate his fur. Alvec ducked low, the heat only barely warming his skin. Illaria also felt only a warm tingle. Naya and Bait managed to get low again, but their skin showed signs of burn damage. Her hands were so bright pink that it looked challenging to hold her twin blades. The back of Bait’s head, in particular, was a sickly discolored lime green. The team needed to end this and tend to the wounded immediately.

Mavec forced magic through Piquora again, and she lashed out, sinking her fangs into the spellcaster. Electricity pulsed through him. “Bait, the one in the back, shoot it!” Mavec called out. He was pretty sure he’d weakened the creature enough for Bait to finish it off. Illaraia, Naya, and Alvec should be able to handle the other one. Bait, now far enough out of the reach of the claws, could now easily slip out of the steam without being swung at. He jogged forward and took Mavec’s suggestion, aiming at the spellcaster further down between the geysers. He pulled the trigger, and his musket roared to life, the spark igniting the black powder and propelling the bullet straight into the creature. It spun to the ground as life left its eyes.

Naya and Echo retreated out of the steam which burned their skin. Alvec and Illaria, however, stayed within it. While Alvec was no master of the dagger, he was able to provide enough of a distraction and a few shallow cuts to distract the kobold from Illaria’s expert slashes. The two made short work of it, as neither steam nor acid affected either of them very much. They both emerged from the cloud of steam shortly. Naya and Bait were the only two injured by the combination of steam and acid, so Alvec and Rem took to treating them.

“So, the Kobolds here aren’t friendly. Anyone be knowing what's up with the snakes around their necks?” Illaria asked.

“Not the faintest,” Alvec said.

“I don’t know, some primitive snake veneration... or hatred? Not really sure, them being dead makes it hard to say,” Mavec said.

“I think it has to do with warding off the river spirit, the serpent who was there when the boat got attacked. That's the best guess I’ve got,” Naya offered.

“Why wouldn’t someone want it to come around?” Mavec asked.

“Usually brings about flooding, which left unchecked ruins farmland, etc.,” Naya said, looking around. “Though I can’t say, these kobolds looked like they’ve been doing much farming.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” Mavec said.

“What matters is that we get past them and secure our entry fee,” Alvec said.

“Agreed, how are we looking?” Mavec asked, glancing at his two comrades currently being bandaged up.

“I think we’ll be sitting the rest of the night out. Magic’s done the best it can, but steam burns are nasty. Even with the best treatments I can give them, I think it's likely best we wait till morning. Naya can barely hold a sword,” Alvec pointed out as he showed off her incredibly pink hands. Steam insidiously gets into every layer of skin. So even though the wounds didn’t look particularly bad, Alvec was sure the pair needed more time to recover.

“We’re best off setting up back in that forested section. Maybe a smidge off the beaten path, we can use fallen tree limbs for extra cover,” Naya suggested

“Sounds good in theory, but have any of us done that before?” Mavec asked.

“I can instruct you guys on it,” Naya said. “Just don’t ask me to actually handle it right now,” she said, raising her hands. The group followed her instructions and used what they could to camouflage their position. No one knew how many kobolds lived in this area and how violent they might become. Odds were good that this wasn’t the last kobold they would have to face off against.

As they sat by the fire, Illaria asked the question on everyone's mind. “So what’s the story here, Mavec? Why are we out here risking our hides to earn an entry fee so you can fight this Warren Alston fellow?”

“I used to live in Jai-Enora. A modest town on the foothills. We had a lot of trouble getting clean water for the town. Mining made us prosperous, but its chemical spills made it very unsafe for people to drink from. So, I built a filtration system for the water from scratch. It worked. I was able to pump up well water and run it through my clockwork filtration system. At the end of the day, we had clean, drinkable water. The problem was the scale and my lack of resources. I grew up an orphan, only getting into the academies on merit. That's where most of my test work on the filtration device was done. It worked, but I didn’t have the means to make a larger-scale version, and the small-scale version would only provide enough clean water for a handful of houses. That's where Warren came in. The absolute asshole promised to deliver results and funding.” Mavec paused to spit on the ground. “He did, of course, else I would have had the academy on his ass for breach of contract. About halfway through the installation, I discovered that he’d altered my designs in the later units, and not for the better. I tested them, and efficiency dropped to about a quarter of my design. It was barely better than before we started filtering it.”

“Which meant people were going to get sick, and when they did, your name was attached to the project,” Alvec said.

“Sure was, conspicuously, his name didn’t appear on any paperwork. As soon as the project was installed, he fled. He took the savings from cutting costs and left before anyone was the wiser. When people started getting sick, I was stuck holding the bag. I was run out of town with nothing but my spell book and plans to create a new clockwork familiar. Did I mention that the mob that ran me out of town because of Warren shattered my first companion? A clockwork Squirrel was destroyed because of him. I will wipe the floor with him and whatever bullshit constructs he has. I’m going to make them listen to me when I tell them that he stole from Jai-Enora and do my best to make him confess to being behind the failure of parts of the water filtration system.”

“That's when we found you wandering the roads. You were in rough shape,” Alvec said, nodding his head in sympathy.

“Yeah, I was honestly worried you might have been hypothermic. It was raining, and you didn’t even have a coat or a cot,” Naya said. “I was glad we were able to make a pretty good shelter that first night. It rained so much. We all were curled right around the fire like tonight,” Naya mused as they all settled in for a restless night of sleep in the safety of this small campsite.