Chapter 10 - Plan & Approach
After a relaxing day, with only light sparring and small workouts on the combined decks of the two ships, night fell, and we entered the old parts of the forrest where the Elven City of Trees is located. The trees here are massive, hundreds of feet tall, and they serve as the pillars of the city.
We had been flying over a forrest for hours, but only recently had the trees became this large.
"Alrigh' Cap'n, we are in Elven Air now, should see the city any moment." Helmsman Smith calls out.
I was on the front of the ship and was watching the approaching lights. While it was very dark out, a dark and still starry night sky, the moon was currently not visible leaving an erie feeling looking down into the depths of the forrest. There was sporadic lighting down below that only left hints at civilization, but no visible movement or buildings.
The city was hard to discern amongst the trees, especially at night, and most of the guild halls were on the outskirts, so we never got a great look at it.
"Alrighty Cap'n, we are lined up right now." Helmsman Smith says as we feel the momentum of the ships come to a stand still.
"Let's get down there." Aedra says.
I nodded and we headed down to the droppad where we met most of the squad, as well as Captain O'Connells members of Squad 1.
"We don't all need to go, 5 from each squad should be good." Aedra continues, "Kira, Aliana, Shiri, and Elle, will come with me." Couldn't help but notice he included Aliana in the
"HAHAHA, setting yourself up eh Cap'm, bunch a ladies with ya." Captain O'Connell never can stop from busting the captains balls.
"What we aren't staying long, let's grab them and go. We know what we need to do." Aedra says in a surprisingly stern voice, he wants to fight.
"I am sure it won't be that fast Aedra." Aliana says with a musical tone, her voice is always mesmerizing, as if she can choose who hears it, no matter what other noises there are. It brought a smile to my face.
"Of course, why would anything be easy." Dorris says while walking away from the lift.
He received blank looks, and we gathered to leave.
"It ain't easy, it ain't hard, it just is." Dartren, the Half-orc half-human said with a smile and a rumbling chuckle.
"Oh you at least get to go down there, I am sick of being on this ship." Dorris continued to jokingly complained.
Laughs came around the cramped loading bay, as the Captain decided on his fate.
"Just because you complained, you will stay here." Captain Aedra says with a wicked smile.
A round of laughs, even from Dorris went around.
Captain O'Connell brought Dartren, Jaren, and the twin human priests Galen and Lilly Straummer. Galen and Lilly were both very attractive humans with very blonde, almost white hair, which they both kept long and straight.
They almost perfectly matched, except Galen wore blue while Lilly wore white. Their staffs also matched, both in elegant white wood, but the gems on top were different, blue for galen, white for Lilly.
We began descending, and it had to have been my favorite ride on the smooth drop pads. We fell through the trees, which were adorned with all sorts of lights forming a tunnel that guided us down.
We stepped off the platform onto an open balcony where a beautiful Elven woman with very green hair stood with a stoic expression.
"Ahhhh Ellestrae, great to see you again." A smile appears on her face as she successfully ignores everyone. It made me smile as Ellestrae and this lady met again.
"This is the wonderful Aella Piern, Sect Master of the Elven Branch of the Lunar Pact." Aedra says to me as Ellestrae began speaking quietly with Aella.
While completely ignoring Aedra she comes to me next, my ghost starting to speak as she cut it off, almost ignoring it.
"Ahhhh, the Starfall, as they call her. Well you are intriguing, aren't you?" She asked in a rhetorical tone, she then hugged me, which was weird I was expecting a handshake or to be flatly egnored like everyone else.
She seemed to stare into my eyes long enough to make it awkward. She then seemed to sigh, with an almost deflated look, nearly sad or disappointed.
"HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA, seems she doesn't approve stargirl. BAHAHHAHAH" Captain Strieeten wakes up the city with his laugh. The city is also very silent, not much movement, so his huge voice booms around the trees and buildings.
I raised an eyebrow, and Aella just snorted.
"Right then, come in, we are in the meeting room." Aella says, while turning around and walking arm in arm with Ellestrae.
"Well, that was interesting." My ghost said.
I nodded and looked over to Aedra who just shrugged and shook his head. In we go.
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In the room we met 2 other Lunar Pact Elves from this section, who proceeded to tell how the group of them discovered the fortress. Selinae and Chautrae, a druid and a rogue, respectively. Selinae had a horrible bruise on the left side of her face from the fight, Chautraes left arm was in a sling and had a black eye and a limp. Apparently they don't want their injuries healed or something?
"We entered the complex with ease, there was not any guards on the entrance from the tunnels. it was when we reached the courtyard, there was a shifting of the stones and we were seen. There had to be 30 trained men of some huge race. Could be ogres, orcs, or something 7-8ft tall." Chautraes deeper than expected voice speaks.
"All were in matching armor, it was dark so I couldn't see them clearly. But as we were retreating, some mage used a massive kinetic force spell, must have been up on the wall behind us cause it knocked our 3 fighters up front." Chautrae continued, Selinae was nodding with a thousand mile stare.
"I pulled Selinae into the door leading back thorugh the hallways to the trap door we found in a closed off room. We made it out without being chased, I made sure to get her out. It looked like the others were just being captured." Chautrae said regrefully.
"Honestly, it's a miracle we made it out, I know that we could have stayed, but we would have been captured as well. I just hope we can make it back in time to save them." Chautrae finished.
A few minutes of silence passed as everyone sorted their thoughts out.
"Alright, lets hear about the defenses....Anti-air, fortifications, man power, tells all you can." Aedra says, ever to the point he is.
"They have air turrets, I heard about the back entrance to this place on the guild request. We didn't see how many there really was in that place. Definitely more than 30 armed guards, and more than a couple mages judging by the power thrumming from underground." Chautrae says.
"We were only there for a few minutes before they...captured them, but we were told not to come by air, apparently they have scouts or something." Selinae wasn't talking much, but she still wants this to be finished. Her eyes stare around at nothing, with a horrible worried expression. I wish I could comfort her without being weird.
"Hmmmmm." Captain O'Connells voice seems to vibrate the room as he thinks this through.
My ghost throws his two cents in, "What does the surrounding area look like? Are there multiple approaches?"
The local sect of people look at each other as my metallic sounding ghost asks the questions, they seemed to know how intense this mood was though, because they did not question it.
"Well it's up against a spire in the mountains almost, there is a secret entrance on the other side...the north eastern side, that we entered through, it looked like it had not been used at all. I still think that is the best bet."
"So, a group goes into the back as the ships and rest of the crew strike from the front?" Aella asks, the intimidating woman of our Elven guild is not impressed with this plan.
Aedra nods and I have to agree, "Yeah, we will need a distraction, or the main force to attack with our cannons, perferably from differnt angles." Captain Aedra continues, "You said this fortress is a square shape with one gate?"
"Mhm, the castle butts up against the mountain, the path we took came up into the forts wall, they are huge, but have paths inside them that go around the place and into the fortress itself." Chautrae said, then kept going, "The Castle itself isn't huge, but most of it is underground I think. Directly below the courtyard is where the magic power is coming from, maybe another 60ft down or so, and the path we snuck in on just takes you straight to the western wall tunnel."
"So we get close with a squad attacking form the back, have the ships hit the base from a few hundred feet, and we break the gate down and go. Or we all go quietly, and cloak and dagger, hit the place at like 4 in the morning and hope for the best." Galen says with a surprisingly strong voice for someone who has been as quiet as I have been.
Captain Aedra just raised his eyebrow, while looking at the table and nodding.
Most of everyone else is thinking, but I looked at Strieeten O'Connell, and he was just smiling. "Well, I know what I am doin', you lot can go sneak about, but I don't sneak. That gate will come down at MY HANDS and we will take the base by force. HAHAHHA"
"I was waiting for that, ahahhaha." Dartrens huge form was also chuckling at his Captains' antics, "You know I am in Cap, I like a straight fight. I also don't want to sit on a horse for a long time to go around that mountain."
I didn't think about that, whoever goes in throught the secret entrance will have to travel ahead by land...That makes me wonder....Do I have access to my Sparrow? That could be a boat load of fun if I do.
"Yeah, I think a group of 5 or so should sneak to the back, and hit the base then the first wave of shots hits the base from our ships, when the shiedls are down. We sneak in, get underground, and take the shields out then attack and search as much as possible. We need to check this whole thing, there could be people in the darkest depths just trying to stay alive." Aedra said while still burning a hole in the table with his stare.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"BAHAHHHA, well then I guess yer offerin' to go then aren't ya? BAHAAHAHA" Captain O'Connell said between walls of laughter.
Aedra looked up to him and smiled, "I'll just clean that whole fort out, by the time you get there you can just look around for treasure and I will have already left haha." Aedra taunts, and he received another wave of laughter from the other Captain.
"Well, once we are done joking around, perhaps we can see about saving our fellow guild mates. Now what are we gonna do about the anti-air, and the monsters this place might be spawning? You said they know how to...corrupt regular beings into mana warped monstrocities?" Aella asks and gets us back on track.
Ellestrae spoke up, "Yes, we nearly witnessed it, but then again, we don't know who "they" are. It seemed to be a small group of around 50 cultists who were pouring their magic into another who funneled it into a destroyed Grav stone, which was used to channel holy power through one of the three diving classes." (Druid, Paladin, Shaman are the divine classes)
Aella nods, she must have heard about it through our guild masters.
"Assuming they have this same sort of set up going, or something similar, we can guess that the two cults either knew each other, or knows a third party that is supplying this knowledge to groups of people. Either way, I think the only option is to try that tunnel again, but I'll bring Taezed, the master trap detector to check it out." Aedra says with a smirk.
"I can also scan the entire tunnel, though I am not entirely familiar with all of the magical traps that might exist." Ghost says. I feel like he never warned me about traps before....
"Right, I'll take Kira, Taezed, Chautrae, and....Aethena? Would you want to go..." Aedra was saying but was cut off by Aethena.
"I will attack the main gate with them." Aethena says while sitting next to Jaren, ah that makes sense.
"BAHAHA, I will send my Rike, half-orc with ye, he's as quiet as they get, and he'll SNEAK ON YEA! BAHHAAAHA." Captain O'Connell speaking another language.
Everyone looks at him with confused or amused faces, Dartren cleared it up, "Rike, he's our little sneak, an Assassin class. hehehe"
"Okay then, that is five, we need to get some horses, and I think we have enough gear on the ship for us, Chautrae you got all you need? Why aren't you healed?" Aedra asks.
"I was just wanted to feel it until it's time to go." Chautre says with a dark look in his eyes.
"We have plenty of horses, are you guys going to take a ship there?" Aella asks, looking at Aedra.
"Yeah we should leave from here, just in case, take a few days to get around. We can contact Elle before we engage." Aedra says.
"I don't need a horse." I said after a short silence.
Aedra looks at me expectantly...."Go on." He says with a smile.
I looked at my Ghost and smiled. "Oh, your Sparrow, yes we will not be needing a horse." Ghost answers for me.
"Alright, space magic I assume, anyways, lets leave in the morning, and heal these two please, Shiri." Aedra says while tossing a thumb at the sulking Selinae and Chautrae.
I ran over to them since I was closer while smiling at Shirina. I dropped my healing well and they were back to 100% in a few seconds.
"Ohh well, my own job taken from me." Shirina says with her hands on her hips and a bewildered smile. A chorus of laughter was held.
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After going back to the ship that night, we just had a small meal of delicious meats, fruits, veggies, cheeses, and other snacks. It was simple but hit the spot. I fell asleep in my own bed that night, without any extra anxiety. I was ready for this trip, but not nervous.
The next morning came faster than I thought it would, I had all my stuff stored in my inventory for the trip, including my trident. I left my room and met Taezed and Aedra in the galley. We were provided with enough food for a week, and I offered to carry it for them, but Taezed just politely declined. I held Aedras food though.
At the drop pad we met Rike, who was very tall, and ridiculouly athletic looking. He seemed to be ready to spring into combat at any time. He had a dark black hood up, and dark black dyed leather armor that showed his full arms, but had bracers on his forearms. He had a lot of knives all over and a cross bow on his back with a large amount of bolts.
Aedra shook hands and introduced us. Rike didn't really reply, just grunted and shook his hand and looked at me and Taezed skeptically. I just shrugged and we got onto the pad.
We took the lift down and it was still very dark out. The same lights greeted the three of us on the way down, and I am pretty sure they are differently colored and positioned.
The pad was empty when we touched down, and we went through the same door, where Chautre was currently eating a small sandwhich of some sort.
"Morning Chautre." Aedra says.
"Mmmmm." Chautres' grunt is an attempt at the word morning.
He got up and we all made our way to through the surprisingly well lit tree. The same type of orb clusters as outside were drifting around the halls as we made our way down the winding ramp. At the bottom we were met with Aella.
"Are you all ready?" Aella asks the Captain.
"Yeah we should be fine, just need the horses." Aedra replies easily.
"They are outside and ready." She replied.
"Alright, well, we will see you when this is over." Aedra said.
She nodded sternly and I noticed her eyes where a little wet, "Please, bring them back." She turned around and began to breakdown. I wonder if it was just because it was early, or she was just tired, but either way, she wanted her family back, you can't blame her for that.
Chautre surprisingly walked up to her and put his arms around her, "It's alright mom, we will get them back." His deep voice was caring, and I had the suspician that he wasn't her child, just a term of endearment.
Making our way throught the large carved doors of the guild hall, we found ourselves on the ground floor of the Elven city, which was stil dark in the early morning hours.
To the left there was a small clearing, while most of the grounds around the city seemed to be covered in stone, there was plenty of small landings with grass and the one to the left had 4 beautiful horses.
I only came up to their shoulder and they all had the same gorgeous cream-silver color. They almost seemed to glow, and their eyes glinted with more than normal intelligence. They had saddles and tac, but were not tied to anything, and instead just sort of stood around waiting.
"Here they are, they will take you to the fort, and leave on their own, so don't worry about bringing them back." Aella continues, "Also, they should be fine with food, but if you give them some sugar cubes I am sure you can win their favor. Are you sure you don't need a horse Starfall?" Aella asks me with a smile.
I just smiled and shook my head. Aedra had also given me a dark cloak with a hood large enough to put over my helm, it looked pretty cool, but I think I would make some Hunters jealous.
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We made it out of the city, everyone walking their horses, and when we made it outside they all mounted and looked at me expectantly.
It is my time to shine. I put my left hand forward summoning my Ghost, and then began the sparrow summoning process with a thought.
I had the feeling of needing to step over the side, like getting on a horse, and I threw my leg over the side of the Sparrow that spawned underneath me.
As most people do the second they spawn the Sparrow, I smashed the boost and flew down the curvy elven road, barely missing trees. It went so fast that I barely held on. Turns out the game only let them go a certain speed because of the small world size, they go stupid fast on an actual planet.
I stopped the Sparrow after launching off of some large roots into a clean backflip, if I do say so myself. It is an exotic sparrow after all. I did it out of view of anyone though, it would have been weird to explain that.
It took them a little while to catch up to me and I guess that dispelled and concerns about my ability to keep up.
"Well, you don't see that everyday." Chautre said when the four riders finally caught up to me.
"Any more secrets you got there Kira?" Aedra asks while smiling and shaking his head.
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The Road east of us was very well maintained until we had to break onto untouched ground and it took a lot longer to move throught he brush, even on my sparrow.
We still made great speed through the day and the mountains were getting closer. The atmosphere was still pleasant because we were riding through the forrest, and it was a gorgeous day. The sounds that you can hear are definitely out of a fantasy world, with exotic birds and more. We only ran into a few monsters which were usually dispatched before they came close enough to be a problem.
Traveling with this group was weird, Taezed and Rike, were utterly silent. only speaking when necessary. Taezed would spend most of his time riding far ahead scouting. Rike would just hand behind us and his eyes constantly searched our surroundings as we rode through the forrest on small hunting paths.
I actually struggled more than the horses because of the turns, but it was fine in the long run. I could also summon and dismiss my Sparrow nearly at will.
The first night we found a small clearing in the bottom of a small ravine that flattened out nice. We had a fire and enough room for our tents.
"Can I stay in your tent?" I asked the Captain as he was setting up, I made sure to quietly do that away from the others....I don't need that pressure.
"Yours is broken?" The smirking Captain replied.
"No...but..." I quietly responded.
"Kira, I'm kidding, grab your stuff." He laughed at my expense.
Rike was hired as our first cook, he made a certain type of stew, that was very delicious. He still refused to speak as we were handed out the dishes by him at the fire.
"I'll take first watch." Taezed says.
"Second." Aedra says.
"Third!" I quickly spat out, I don't want to be the last one before morning.
Rike just nodded with a grunt....oh god I have to wake him up after my shift....awkard.
After eating dinner and Taezed took up his first watch on the hill I got to relax in Aedra's tent. We put our bed rolls and blankets together and make a pretty comfortable surface to sleep on.
As we were laying down on the bed I spawned my Ghost and considered the plan again.
"We are about 40% of the way to the secret entrance. My scans have not seen a humanoid of any kind, outside of our party since this afternoon, when we left the road." Ghost said.
"They could be using a controlled monster of some sort to see if we are coming, we should be aware of more than just...."Humanoids" or whatever you said. They can do much with the magic in this world." Aedra said while laying back. He was oddly stressed for such an uneventful day, maybe that IS why he seems stressed.
"Oh good point, I should conduct a scan right now..." Ghost says, then floated out of the tent to do just that.
"Are you worried about this?" I asked, usually he is confident and cool before missions, at least the few that we have fought together.
"I just think there might be more to this than corrupting beings into monsters. I don't know what it is though, I just think this is going to be a larger fight than we are ready for." Aedra said.
"There was a lot at the last place we raided, but this one is a whole fort, I just think this is going to be a bigger battle." Aedra explained.
"We are strong though, and there are a lot of us." I said confidently.
He nodded and put his arm around me, "I know, we just need to be ready to fight for a long time. I hope we can go in quiet, and take out a lot before they know we are there. By the time we get found out, hopefully we can take down the sheilds, and disrupt operations enough to make a difference. We don't know the full layout, nor the amount of forces they have."
"It will be a good fight." I said.
He laughed yeah I guess it will.
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Aedra quietly woke me up for my watch and he said, "3 hours then wake up Rike for his. Have fun out there." He hugged me then immediately laid down in his armor, he might have been asleep before he hit the bed rolls.
I shook my head and equipped the armor, but left my helmet off. It was a cold night and my ghost followed me to the hill, there was a tree that wasn't horrible to lean against.
The little ravene that we were in was almost an oval and pretty decently hidden. The trees were still very large, but they had been getting further apart for a while. I couldn't see very far into the trees, but it was a pretty good spot to see most of the camp and turning to the right most of the forest.
"So I was able to do a fairly decent scan around here, and there doesn't seem to be any anomalous magical signatures." Ghost said.
"You can detect mana now?" I asked, I don't remember him being able to before.
"Yes, it turns out it is a slightly less efficient energy source that seems to permeate throughout the planet from deep underground. I have been able to detect the pathways the magic passes through in this world." Ghost replies calmly.
"Hmmm." I grunted.
"Also, I think, that with training you might be able to harness this power as well. Your ability to use the Light might make it easier to use the Magic in this world, however, it will take a lot of practice. I implanted the knowledge on how to harness the Light, you will have to learn how to use magic on your own." Ghost said.
I was actually surprised, it hadn't even occured to me. I know that I generate light naturally, and gain more for killing enemies with masterworked weapons, but I have no clue how to draw in magic. I haven't been able to sense it at all.
The rest of my shift went by relatively fast, talking with Ghost made it go be fast. I had some fruit that I brought with me from my inventory, mostly just to taste something. It was delicious. I forgot the name of it, but it had the consistency of a pear, but tasted like a strawberry and banana flavor, and a slight after taste of Cinnimon, but it was very delicious, and the spicy cinnimon was not at all overwhelming.
"Well Kira, that is 3 hours, do you want me to wake up Rike for you?" Ghost asked,
Honestly that would be nice, but I might as well so he doesn't kill Ghost or soemthing.
"I got it." I said.
Making my way to his tent I knocked on the pole and stuck my head in, "Rike?" I said and made eye contact with the Orc who was reading with a candle lit.
"My turn?" He asked.
I just nodded with a smile.
"You know your eyes are glowing right?" Rike asked.
Obviously I know that, so I just made a questioning/confused face in response.
"It can be seen from a distance is all I am saying. You should be careful." Rike said.
I just spawned my helmet, and shrugged.
"Fair enough." He said, then grabbed his crossbow, quiver, blanket and flask.
"See you in the morning." He said.
I nodded at him and went to Aedra's and my shared tent. Time to get some sleep!
The next morning was a quick breakfast, and we were off again.
Most of the day was uninteruppted riding, and it brought us to the base of the valley that lead up to the back door in the mountains, still a could few miles of a hike to the place. We scouted around here, and found the scouting tower, but didn't take it out. There was two monsters that were fairly loud with their grunting sounds at each other.
Taezed and myself were able to make it away without being noticed. We backed away and set up camp far enough away so our smoke wasn't seen.
We all slept in the afternoon, because we attack that night. After coordinating with the other squad, we will be ready to move at midnight.
The assault was about to begin.