Talwarg pulled his axe from the corpse of the last remaining gaunt, having led a charge through the entryway to intercept a bulwark that had not been drawn away by that crazy dranrid. Despite his doubts about the new khan’s sanity, he had to admit that drawing the gaunts away had been the only reason the monastery still stood. Turning back to the monastery, he saw Lanek staggering back into the plaza from the east, clearly exhausted.
Waving to get Nerek’s attention, the pair jogged over to Lanek, relieved to find that he was not injured. The two hobgoblins helped him back to the monastery, where Lanek immediately looked around and started to try to free himself from their grip.
“Nope, not going to happen. You clearly need rest. Let’s get you to your quarters and we can fill you in on what happened while you were gone and you can tell us where you took those gaunts. Sound good?”
Lanek glowered at Talwarg, but ultimately gave in. “It’s not like I could fight you even if I wasn’t exhausted. What the hell are you made of?”
Talwarg laughed and helped Lanek to the fourth floor and into his quarters while Nerek went to gather the rest of Lanek’s companions. Lanek was rather relieved that the big hobgoblin didn’t insist on putting him in bed, but helped him to his chair in the office portion of his quarters. Talwarg looked around at the room appreciatively while they waited for the others to arrive.
“Take whichever room you want up here, there should be several empty ones available.” Lanek said.
“I may take you up on that, it would be nice to be comfortable for a while.”
Moments later, Caelis, Ivan, Liv, and Ograch filed into the room alongside Nerek. Nerek shook his head in amusement to see Talwarg sitting on the floor ruffling Sanguineus' fur.
Caelis immediately took charge of the meeting, glaring at Lanek as she did. “I would appreciate it if you would stop putting yourself in danger. It’s like you’re a magnet for trouble! What did you do?”
“I’m sorry, Caelis. I didn’t think we had time to discuss my plan, people were dying. Since it seemed like the gaunts were here for me, I wanted to lead them away.”
Talwarg nodded. “It was a big risk, but it is the only reason we made it through the day. We still took heavy losses, though. We lost a pair of hobgoblins and a dozen goblins during the attack. I’m not sure we can hold if those gaunts come back.”
Lanek winced. “That many? Dammit, I’m sorry Talwarg.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but you have no need to be sorry. We would have been wiped out sooner or later if you hadn’t brought us here. At least here we will have a chance to rebuild if the gaunts leave us be.”
“You don’t have to worry about the gaunts. All of the ones that followed me are dead. Although, I’m worried I may have fucked things up even worse.”
Caelis almost growled in frustration. “What did you do now?”
“I led them to the east. To the matriarch.” Caelis sucked in a breath while Nerek paled at the news. “I thought she would be angry, but she seemed satisfied after wiping out the gaunts. Why would she be okay with me leading the gaunts into the area?”
Nerek spoke up, voice shaking. “Because you gave the matriarch a massive influx of flesh to feed her children.” Seeing Lanek’s confusion, Nerek continued his explanation. “For the most part, dungeon creatures do not leave behind anything that can be eaten. However, there are skills and classes that can keep the corpse from fading and allow you to use the bodies, whether to harvest materials and cores or to eat the bodies. The problem with these skills is that they don’t have a 100% success rate unless you are a master. For the matriarch and her brood to survive here, they must have been living on the razor's edge in terms of food, which limited their numbers.”
Caelis continued the explanation. “And now, you have given her hundreds of corpses that will not fade and do not require special skills to harvest. Her numbers will grow exponentially and she will seek to expand her territory as that much food will most likely result in the birth of another matriarch.”
Lanek swore, feeling despair creep in. “She’s probably going to come here, isn’t she? She can’t really expand to the east without coming into open conflict with the dungeon itself and I’m sure that we are an easier target than the orcs to her north.”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Caelis nodded. “That is the most likely approach. There are plenty of empty places for her to occupy, but her children will be gluttonous after eating those gaunts and will want more prey and we are definitely the easiest target.”
“How long do we have?” Ograch asked.
“Most likely around two weeks. Three if we’re lucky.” Caelis responded.
“Alright, let’s come up with some ideas, then.” Lanek said, gesturing for Caelis and his companions to hold their objections. “I promise I will rest soon, but I want to at least get some plans in place before we all take a well-earned break, okay?”
After getting their assent, Lanek continued. “First things first, any luck with the wards, Ivan?”
“Yes, I was able to figure out how the system works and even how to make it more efficient. If I can get the right materials and a few days to work with them, I can get the defensive wards up and running using far less cores than we need currently. Additionally, the maintenance cost of the wards can be greatly decreased as well. Given enough time, I can probably make them even stronger, but that is something that will take months to complete.”
“What kind of materials do you need?”
“Metal. Gemstones would be helpful in the long run, but I can make do with high quality metals. The higher the quality, the better.”
“Hmm. Liv, once you guys get rested, do you think you could make your way back to that blacksmith I showed you? The one with the hidden cellar.”
Liv smiled brightly, despite her exhaustion. “Oh yes, I can do that. If Talwarg can spare some of his people, I think it would be a great idea to start moving everything from that cellar into the storerooms of the monastery.”
“How many people would you need? What exactly would we be moving?” Talwarg asked curiously.
The big hobgoblin and the Lothenae both had giddy smiles on their faces as they listened to Liv describe the ludicrous amounts of ore, ingots, and weapons stored within that cellar. By the time Liv had finished, Talwarg had turned to Lanek with an arched eyebrow.
“Holding out on us, my khan?”
Lanek snorted. “I needed something to trade if I couldn’t get enough drops to satisfy you. Besides, how could I have known that a certain greedy hobgoblin wouldn’t have cut out the middle man and just taken everything directly?”
Nerek laughed, slapping a sheepish Talwarg on the back. “I’d say he has you figured out pretty well!”
“Relax, Talwarg. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had. I would have taken the option if I were in your place and it was presented to me. You need to take care of your people after all.” At Lanek’s words, Talwarg nodded gratefully.
“Caelis, after we get those materials into the monastery, could you give Liv and Ograch the locations of some armorers? The blacksmith doesn’t have so much as a shield when it comes to defensive equipment.”
“Of course. However, I think that we should leave the armor and weapon retrieval to Liv. Ograch should lead hunting parties into the city, preferably taking anyone that is capable of ranged combat and has the hunting class. If we’re lucky, that will trigger a class evolution that would give us someone with a harvesting skill that will help us stockpile cores. Even if that doesn’t happen, they are bound to recover some cores and drops anyway.”
“I agree, that sounds like a better use for me.” Ograch said.
“Well, I guess I will take on the task of getting this place ready for an attack.” Talwarg declared. “We have a few builders and craftsman among the tribe that I can put to work repairing both sets of doors and reinforcing them. Do you care where we get the materials?”
Lanek shook his head. “Not really. All I ask is that you don’t take them from the monastery itself or tear down the structures around the plaza. We may need those for future living space.”
“Or as part of a wall to keep the plaza secure.” Talwarg finished.
“Yep. Do you think you could get those builders to make some stairs in the courtyard on the fourth floor?”
“Courtyard? On the fourth floor?” Talwarg and Nerek looked confused.
“Well, technically they are stables. The former owners of this place were gryphon riders. There’s even a gryphon still sleeping up there.” Lanek said with a smile, anticipating their reaction.
“You know, Lanek. At this point, I’m not even surprised anymore. Is it dangerous?” Talwarg responded with a resigned expression.
“Nah, she’s asleep behind a powerful barrier and has been for centuries. From what Caelis has told me about her, she’s not likely to go into a rampage if she wakes up either. Anyway, when I climbed the walls to lead the gaunts away, I noticed that they were quite wide, easily able to accommodate people walking around up there. I’m guessing the Order of the Talon had planned on putting guard posts up there, but hadn’t gotten around to it before the dungeon broke.”
Talwarg thought for a moment. “I’m thinking a few small battlements spaced along the walls where we can fire arrows at the enemy. Adding a basic roof to protect the guards from the elements would work well, too. Also, they can help keep the spiders from coming down on top of us. Yes, I’m pretty sure we can get something put together soon after fixing the doors.”
Nerek spoke up at that moment. “Is there some place I can meditate and commune with Wurgoth? I can feel him reaching out to me.”
Caelis nodded. “I will show you the way.”
“That’s another thing, we need to get everyone settled into their quarters.” Lanek said, preparing to rise. As he did so, Sanguineus growled at him while Kazuma gave him the coldest stare he had ever seen from the cat.
“I’ll take care of that. Sleep. Now.”
Caelis’ tone made it clear that she was done asking.